


Who Knew?

by Sokorra



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Mama Todd Adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-21 10:25:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1547291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sokorra/pseuds/Sokorra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kate Todd finds out she's pregnant after the Plague scare that nearly killed Tony, her job protecting Gibbs is switched with another Agent, which changes the timeline of NCIS.  AU to season 2's finale.<br/>(written in 2009, so slight canon variances).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is actually complete. I wrote it in March 2009 while on Spring Break and write the sequel (which is not online yet) that November. Its an AU from season 2, and the wisest decision when reading this is to pretty much ignore any canon developed after season 5.
> 
> For example, I know that on the show, Tony's a junior. In this fanfic, his relationship with his father is strained for different reasons then the show gave, and his father's name is Nicholas.
> 
> This is dedicated to my friend, Sasha Perrette, who spent nights laughing with me with the antics of a woman we liked to call Mama Todd. 
> 
> This story is complete, and will be posted as I glance through it and edit it (It was never beta'd except for the first two chapters. The sequel is also complete, but in a Nano file, so its kind of...in shambles I guess.

It had been the week from hell, and it was not looking to get much better. Well, it was better in the fact that Tony was leaning more towards ‘recovered’ rather than being put down as a statistic of Pneumonic Plague. Currently he was still in the blue room, but they were thinking of moving him into a private care room now that he wasn’t contagious.

She on the other hand had been called into Dr. Pitt’s office to discuss some anomalies that had shown up in her blood work when they had tests done to confirm _Y. Pestis._ This had her scared that perhaps she had it and it just took a day longer to show up. After all she stayed in the quarantine room when she didn’t need to be.

Then again, if she had the disease, surely he wouldn’t have asked her to walk up to his office, but would have come down to her and kept her in quarantine.

“Dr. Pitt?” She asked as she reached the office. He was sitting at his desk, paperwork all over the desk. He looked up and smiled and motioned for her to enter.

“How are you feeling, Agent Todd?” He asked.

“Good. Still got a stuffed up nose, but other than that I’m fine. Emma said you found some anomalies in my blood.”

“Yes, although it sounds worse than it is. I should have noticed it before. It effects your antibiotic treatment. I’ve had Emma stop your dose of Streptomycin.”

“Why?”

“Streptomycin is a category D drug and I rather not risk you having a miscarriage or hurting the baby when taking the antibiotics is more precautionary then treatment. I’m going to be prescribing a higher level of an antibiotic called cephalaxin. It’s type B, and still has its risks, but considerably less than that of Streptomycin.” He paused as he watched her look at him, confused. “You did know you were pregnant?”

“No…I would have told someone if I was.” Kate thought back to figure out when this could have happened. She hadn’t been sleeping with anyone, not since before Paraguay…

Oh. Paraguay.

“Well, then I’m pleased to let you know that you are indeed pregnant. About two months from the levels of folic acid in your system. We can do a more thorough check-up if you wish. Our OB/GYN is here today.” She felt herself nodding, but the information was still sinking in.

Wasn’t she supposed to be ecstatic right now? She had been thinking about kids more and more lately. Wondering when she would have some. She hadn’t intended on actually having them now, and not with Tony due to a wild weekend while on assignment in Paraguay.

It had been two months since Paraguay. There were symptoms she had always pushed off as other things - stress, bad days, and lack of Cherry Garcia at the local supermarket in her area of town. No morning sickness, or any of the traditional warning signs she should have.

Oddly enough, her first thought was not what would happen or what Tony would say about it, but what would Gibbs say. She had endangered her life, and now the life of a child, even if it was barely there. All because of a series of mistakes.

No, it wasn't a mistake. They needed that weekend, and she had no regrets ... not yet anyway. But Gibbs was still going to be pissed and would probably kill Tony before congratulating her and acting overprotective.

And she had almost gotten herself sick with the Plague to stay with Tony, who would be no happier then Gibbs. What if she had gotten it? Would the baby have caught it?

Dr. Pitt seemed to understand and simply told her to wait in his office while he called the on-call OB/GYN, a Dr. Jessica Francis. A few moments later, a lively red-head walked into the room and smiled at her. 

“Hello, Agent Todd. I’m Dr. Francis, but call me Jess.” She stuck her hand out and shook Kate’s. “Dr. Pitt tells me you just found out you’re pregnant and want a preliminary exam.”

“I…I would just like to make sure everything’s alright.”

“She was recently exposed to the pneumonic variant of the Plague. We’ve had her on a heavy antibiotic for the last twenty four hours, but I have it changed to a safer one.” Jessica seemed concerned at that, and simply told Kate to follow her to her office where the exam would be held.

“So is this your first child?” the Doctor asked as they walked down the hall.

“Yes.” She started to think of everyone’s reactions as she told them the news. There was no doubt in her mind that she was having this baby, so at least that was one question she didn’t need to focus on.

Abby would be ecstatic, already planning a baby shower within seconds of knowing and figuring out how to decorate the spare bedroom in Kate’s apartment for the baby. McGee would probably have a shocked look on his face, but in general be happy for her. If not, Abby would set him straight. The guy was a pushover for the Goth technician and she wondered if Abby realized how much.

The Director would be a wild card, since she wasn't familiar with Jenny Sheppard yet. Gibbs would growl for awhile, but eventually be happy for her. She could imagine him a few years later sitting with her son and daughter explaining the rules. He was good with children.

As for Tony, she wasn't going to speculate. It just made her start to go into panic mode, and frankly she had enough of that this week. 

“It was unexpected,” she continued after a second. Jessica smiled.

“Aren’t most? How old are you?”

“35.”

“Ah, good age, and I can tell you are in good health, although I’ll double check during the exam. That should help the pregnancy be easier for you. Of course, the exposure to the plague is going to make things interesting these first couple of weeks. You’ll probably need to come in as often as your partner to check to make sure the medication isn’t having any bad effects on either you or your child.”

They had arrived at the OB/GYN section of the hospital and to a suite of offices off to the right of the delivery rooms. Kate sat down on an exam table as Jessica gathered the equipment and paperwork she needed for the exam, handing her a sheet for ‘personal medical history’ before leaving to get something that was outside the room

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

 

It had all started a few weeks before the case in Paraguay. Whenever one of them crossed the line they had set up for themselves, they tended to jump back and try and push the other away as much as possible. It had happened before, during their first year as partners. She couldn’t remember what case it was on, but there had been a moment of possibly more, she had run scared and would tease him about the Voss case even though she knew it hurt him more than amused him. He had responded by picking on things. He was definitely more subtle about his jabs then she was.

But they had gotten over that, and things had gone back to normal. They had transitioned into becoming best friends and partners. When McGee joined the group they took turns teasing him. They ignored the signals that they were playing with that line again.

Then of course, there was the case of the wife who cheated on her husband with his best friend. She had finally come out and asked Tony if he liked her, found her attractive. It had bothered her at first when he replied that he hadn’t asked her out because he knew her. Did that mean that he didn’t ask her because he knew she would say no? Because he preferred their friendship? What?

After that they started to fight again, and although they often fought in general, it was more serious fighting. Not the fun fighting they did on a regular basis. They finally went to Ducky, who uttered the words that would stick with her even more then the ‘I know’. Unresolved sexual tension.

She forgot how they stopped fighting, but it wasn’t resolving that particular issue. That continued to build up till finally they were half a world away from Gibbs with twelve hours to spare while they waited for the flight that McGee managed to get them. And they decided to ‘resolve’. 

At first it looked like it worked. One wild weekend away from work and they got rid of that pesky underlying issue. They dated other people, didn’t feel the need to continue whatever they had started. That was till she started to date Steve, Tony’s former frat brother. She had actually dated Steve before her and Tony got together, but she didn’t start using the information she had gained about Tony from Steve till afterwards.

That was two weeks of fighting over her picture, blackmailing each other and a fight after they managed to get away from Gibbs before he opened the email, followed by another weekend together.

After that they faced facts and decided to actually try a relationship, but keep it quiet at work. This was tested right away. They had managed to keep it secret from everyone at work for two weeks, but then Tony got sick. Abby had told her it had been obvious, and that McGee and she were placing bets on when they would actually admit to each other that they like each other.

Apparently McGee won for once.

* * *

 

She doesn’t tell anyone at first. The only ones who knew were Dr. Pitt and Dr. Frances. They both assured her that the baby was growing healthy and seemed to be the right size for that stage of development.   
  
A week later, Tony is allowed to go home and she goes with him, taking him to her apartment. She thinks about telling him but can’t ever seem to. Tony doesn’t seem to notice her being quieter than usual, but then he’s more quiet himself. A near-death experience and limited use of your lungs will do that to you.

She starts getting morning sickness, but everyone assumes it’s her cold developing into flu and she gets pulled off field duty for awhile. Tony goes back to work despite probably needing another week or two to recuperate. 

Then all hell breaks loose again. This time Ari’s to blame (once again).  


* * *

 

It had been a horrible day. Kate leaned back against the Autopsy coolers and slid down the floor, closing her eyes as she waited for Gibbs and the rest of the team to arrive with the body. The body that could have been hers.

She had been pulled off active duty that morning with the excuse that they couldn't let an agent with the flu, no matter how controlled it appeared, be involved with an active field case this serious. She needed her full concentration on this case, especially while in protection detail. And having the flu was not something that aided one’s concentration. And no arguing got her out of it.

Personally, she had a feeling that they did it not so much because of her concentration as much as it involved Ari and she had been a target twice already. No one wanted her to be proof of “third time’s the charm”.

She had gone home but had turned her police radio on. She had been in the kitchen when she had heard the words "Agent down" come over the speaker she had connected to the frequency NCIS used. Her heart had plummeted into her shoes and various thoughts of who the agent was flashed through her mind, with Tony at the forefront and then Gibbs. McGee was featured a few times in her nanosecond nightmare, but not as much as the others.

She had come back into work after that and went to autopsy once she learned that the agent filling in for her had died. Rebecca Stanson. She remembered Tony teasing her about Becca looking just like her. Not enough to really be called twins or anything of the sort, but from a distance you probably couldn't tell the difference, and certainly not from behind. They had the same basic features, just different enough that up close they could definitely be told apart. Becca's face was rounder, her eyes a little more towards the hazel side of the spectrum. Kate had a more linear nose and her hair was a shade redder depending on the light.

When she had learned the shooter was Ari, she had known what had happened. Part of her felt it should have been her. A greater part of her felt guilty for being exceedingly glad it wasn't. And that it wasn't anyone from the team.

She opened her eyes as something popped up in her mind. She wondered if anyone had told Ken Speedle. Becca's fiancée was on a business trip in Hong Kong, expected back the day after tomorrow. Who knew what time it was there? More guilt ate at her. If anyone was having a bad day, it was Becca and Ken.

Ari was out of chances. The team was going to be after him now, and they weren’t going to give him any reprieve. Especially not her, not after today. 

She heard the sound of the doors opening from outside to allow the gurney with the body on it to pass through into the morgue. She turned to face it as Ducky and Palmer entered first on either side of the gurney, rolling it to a nearby table for preparation. Behind them walked Gibbs, Tony and McGee, almost in a perfect triangle. All five men wore expressions that clearly showed their sadness over the loss of one of their own.

Tony was the first to look her way, as if he had some kind of extra sense just for her. They just looked at each other, not saying anything for a few minutes, Gibbs and Ducky conversing in the background, Palmer and McGee still struggling to handle this. He walked over and sat next to her and took hold of her hand.

This was the second one in less than a year and a half that they had lost. But with Chris at least none of them had to witness it. She could still see the streaks of blood on Gibbs and Tony's clothes, and a few places on their face that whoever cleaned them up had missed.

She didn't say anything. There wasn't much she could say that would help.

She weaved her hand though his, trying to say without words that she was there, and she got a responding squeeze.

"Kate, I thought I told you to go home. We don't need you to give the rest of us your flu.” Gibbs stated as he finally spotted his two agents at the other end of the cold storage. He walked towards them, followed by McGee.

“I feel better. And I felt I needed to be here.” She decided it wasn’t the time to announce her pregnancy, especially when Tony didn’t even know yet. It wouldn’t be fair to him to announce it in front of everyone. And she did feel like she was needed there.

Gibbs seemed to see the point in that statement and just nodded. He looked briefly over his shoulder to where Ducky and Palmer stood vigil over Becca’s body, still within the body bag. He turned back to his team.

"DiNozzo, take Kate home. There's nothing we can do at the office today. McGee, you too. Go home. I don't want to see any of you till tomorrow.” He walked out of Autopsy without another word, followed by McGee who gave a small smile that was both hello and goodbye.

Neither of them was going to go home. McGee was almost certainly going to Abby, his anchor in this storm. Gibbs would either be talking to the new director or sitting at his desk thinking up ways to capture Ari. 

She turned to look at Tony, who was still staring straight ahead. She stood up, pulling him up with her and started out of Autopsy. Ducky and Palmer gave quick waves as Kate said goodbye, starting the arduous task of preparing a friend for an autopsy.

* * *

 

Home this time meant her apartment. It usually did. Her apartment was bigger, closer to work and had better maintenance people. She figured Tony was going to have to find another place if yet another thing fell apart at that place. The most important part was that there was food (she had finally been able to hold something down so she went shopping for groceries the day before).

As soon as they got there, she sent Tony towards the shower to get cleaned up and changed while she put together something for them to eat. She wasn’t very hungry, but she knew they both needed to eat. She was pretty sure he hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and she knew she hadn’t. 

She got out the ingredients for the meal and put them on the counter. She heard the shower down the hall start as she got a pan out to cook.

Kate was in the middle of slicing a pepper when it finally hit her.

She remembered just last month when Becca and her had played a joke on the office. With Abby’s help, the two of them had dressed the same and used a little cosmetic magic to hide the differences. Becca went to work and sat at Kate’s desk, and vice versa. Gibbs actually seemed suspicious, but Terry Marks, Becca’s partner, didn’t have a clue. Neither did McGee, Ducky or Palmer. It was quite funny.

Tony actually figured it out. At first he had the same suspicious look that Gibbs had, but instead of asking questions, he just observed the two of them. It was a paperwork day, with both teams in the office, so he had ample time to do so.

He approached her after about two hours and told her he knew. When she asked why, he had simply shrugged and said Becca moved different. Which was kind of creepy to say, yet sweet that he noticed something like that. Apparently he talked to Becca first, but she never told Kate what he had said about it.

Gibbs never said anything, but she figured he knew about it before lunch.

It had been a fun day. And now Becca was gone.

She hadn’t realized that she had stopped chopping, or that she had been standing there for awhile until Tony’s arms came around her and tugged her back in a hug. She sat the knife on the counter and turned around, hugging him close to her. His body was still warm from the hot shower. She could still feel a few drops that the towel missed on his bare back, and she knew she was adding some to his chest. She didn’t realize she had started to cry till then.

He was crying too, something he didn’t do too often. She’d only seen him do it once or twice. The first time was after the undercover case, where he had befriended a criminal and then was forced to kill him in the end. The second time was right after he got out of the hospital and still couldn’t move far without having trouble breathing. However, that was more frustration then sadness. The only reason why she had seen either one of those times was because she forced herself into his house. The first time she had come over, the worry not quite gone. The second time she brought him home, and stayed till she realized she was sick and could possibly give him something.

He had a pair of track pants on, and his feet were bare. So were hers, if she thought about it, but she didn’t, as both were trying too hard to bring the other closer as they finally let themselves go in their grief for a loss of a friend.

He slowly led her out of the kitchen into the attached living room and they sat on the couch. The peppers would be fine. None of the food left out were that quick to perish. They could stand it for awhile.

They didn’t turn on the TV, just sat there in each other’s company. The crying had stopped, but they didn’t let go. It was the way they had always been. During the day, they exchanged a lot of words, usually in jest or in argument. They never ran out of words then (and there have been times she had gone home wishing they had). But when it came down to this, the words were short, but they stuck together.

It was odd, really. The Kate Todd that had agreed to work with NCIS close to two years ago would have never would have seen herself as she was now. Never saw herself as Tony’s partner more than a technicality on paper. After all, in the past year she had been paired up with McGee often enough. They really didn’t have the strict partner thing within their group. Gibbs just assigned you with whomever, and took whomever when he needed someone to come with him. They were a team.

But in the back of her mind, she was Tony’s partner. They had their own language sometimes. Little hand gestures and looks that conveyed common messages. They knew each other’s idiosyncrasies. They knew the boundaries, even if they did cross them sometimes. She probably knew more about Tony than anyone else…although she might be tied with Gibbs as Gibbs knew everything. She knew he knew more about her then even her family did. 

Their friendship had been an odd one. Oddly enough, she couldn’t remember a time she actually hated him. He had annoyed her a lot, but she never disliked him. After a few months they had the occasional dinner together, usually Chinese (her favorite) or Italian (his favorite). They commiserated over Gibbs. They told stories about their lives pre-Gibbs and in Tony’s case the two years before she came into the picture.

When McGee joined the team, they joined forces in teasing him. They really did see him as the baby brother. Maybe not at first, but she really liked McGee, and she knew Tony did, even if he pretended otherwise. Both of them felt badly when watching McGee love Abby and Abby either pretended not to notice or was completely oblivious.

She remembered the first moment she considered something more with Tony then friendship. It had been after her first encounter with Ari. She had been upset with herself for not doing anything when she had the chance (and if she had she wouldn’t be dealing with Becca’s death, but that was another issue she’d have to deal with). He had said something about it being like falling in love, with a snap of his fingers. She had looked him in the eye right then and watched as he walked back to his desk, never really losing eye contact.

It made her wonder if he thought that way about her. This led to her wondering about what it would be like. Would he ever actually have a relationship instead a pleasant passing by? She was not the one-night kind of girl or the friends with benefits type. She had tried that before and it had failed so spectacularly that she still wasn’t talking to Derek. Or he wasn’t talking to her. It all depended on who you asked.

This of course was one of the forerunners of the great Kate-and-Tony war of 2004. 

* * *

 

They ended up falling asleep on the couch, the food forgotten for a few hours. It was starting to get dark when Kate opened her eyes again. Beneath her she could feel Tony’s chest raise and fall, with a slight wheeze that was all that was left from his fight with the plague. She got up slowly so not to wake him up. He was still recovering and needed the sleep. 

She walked back into the kitchen and put the food away, deciding to make pancakes when he woke up. They needed good old fashioned comfort food, and hers was pancakes and French toast.

She went and took a shower. As she stopped to get dressed in a pair of her favorite pajamas, she tried to see if there were any physical signs of her pregnancy yet. Her stomach still looked basically flat, but she could tell it was starting to show a little. She imagined that within the next couple of weeks she’d begin to show to a point where it would be obvious. She wasn’t going to be able to hide this for too much longer.

“Kate.” She finished putting her top on and responded that she was in the bedroom.

Tony walked into the room holding a folded piece of paper. Apparently while she was in the shower he had awoken and gone through the mail. She noticed it was something from the hospital. Probably the bill letting her know her insurance covered it. She turned to the mirror to start working on her hair.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

She paused in the middle of combing her wet hair and looked back at him. His face was calm, which oddly enough surprised her. She had expected at least an irritated look at her keeping it from him, maybe even angry. But he was very calm.  
  
This actually might have been worse. Tony was not one for calm.

 “I hadn’t figured out how to tell you,” she said, confirming what the paper said. She took it from him and looked at it. It was the insurance bill, like she had thought, but instead of just including the note saying her medication was paid for; it also included the prenatal exam and a note about future visits. “I just found out myself.”

“Does he know?”

She blinked and looked up from the paper in her hands. He was leaning against the doorway and looking out into the hall.

“Who?”

“The father.” She raised an eyebrow. Apparently he hadn’t figured it out completely. She'd chalk it up to stress. Then again, considering that in all the time they had actually been seeing each other, they hadn't actually had sex. Not since Paraguay. During his recuperation he had been in no physical condition to do anything and before that they were in no emotional condition to even go in that direction. So perhaps he had a reason for asking that.

“Well, I believe so, considering he’s talking to me about it right now.” He turned at that. There was a little bit of surprise in his eyes, before he seemed to accept it and a big grin came out on his face.

Then it left as it settled in just how long she had been pregnant. And what had happened during that time. She could practically see it passing through his mind.

 _Oh, boy,_ she thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Going to work the next morning was awkward. Tony and she had fought over the fact that she had endangered herself (and the baby, although he conceded on the fact she hadn’t known), and eventually it had turned from the stuff that was worth fighting over to stuff that was stupid and he left and went to his own apartment. So she spent the night eating pancakes for more than just feeling sad about Becca.

Kate had volunteered to clear Becca’s desk. It saved Terry and Ken from doing it. Ken was on his way back from Hong Kong and Terry was helping out by getting funeral arrangements done. Becca was to be buried in her home town in Pennsylvania, a small town outside Pittsburgh which Kate remembered her talking of fondly.

Gibbs, Tony and McGee were busy all day in meetings with the Director (both Morrow and Sheppard) and various other officials who wanted to know what was going on. Abby was working on evidence from the crime scene of Becca’s death, while Ducky was working on finishing the autopsy so Becca could go home.

So that left Kate with Becca’s desk. It was uncluttered, yet she wouldn’t call Becca a neat freak. Terry’s desk was organized and everything lined up. _He_ was a neat freak. Becca had the normal organized but slightly used look to her desk. 

The top of the desk had a metal file holder with three levels, each holding a file of a case she was working on. To the left was a three picture frame, holding pictures of her parents, Ken, and one of her and Terry at the NCIS company picnic last summer. Her computer sat in the middle, with several Post-it tablets scattered around the base of the monitor. Post-Its were stuck across the top of the monitor and some on the keyboard. 

The top drawer on the left contained more paper. Pencils, stapler. She put those aside. She doubted that Ken would have a need for unused office supplies.

The second drawer had some more personal stuff. Cases that were of particular interest to Becca, a couple of books she would sneak to read during lunch breaks and long car rides. Kate smiled at some of the titles, noticing a few she owned.   
  
The middle drawer had more office supplies, a few birthday cards and a few “Congrats on your Engagement!” cards. A few cut outs from a wedding magazine. It made Kate start to tear up. Becca had been looking forward to marrying Ken. The wedding was supposed to be in July. She had insisted that June was too cliché, but she didn’t want August because it was too hot, and the rest of the year was too cold.

“And if I plan it right,” she had said to Kate one time the two of them had worked a case together, “I’ll have fireworks at my wedding and not have to pay for them.”

The two drawers on the left contained reference manuals, a phone book, a stash of print outs that she was using as scrap paper to write numbers down, a sketchbook, and a box full of white envelopes. Kate opened the box and noticed that there was one addressed to all the agents on their floor, plus a few for some of the techs that Becca was familiar with, and Ducky and Palmer. The post-it on top of the box read simply ‘In case of my untimely demise, please disperse these to whom they are intended’ in a flowing gothic font that Becca probably thought would be amusing. She was partially right.

She took the envelopes addressed to her and the others and slipped them out before adding the box to the larger box that contained all of Becca’s personal effects. She put the top on the box and placed it next to Terry’s desk. She looked back at the now empty desk, with all the manuals piled on top, ready for the next Agent to use them, to place them where they wished.

It was so hard to think of Becca not being there. No more jokes played on the others. No more conversations over coffee while they waited for the others to wander in. This was actually worse than Chris. She had barely known him. She had worked with Becca for over a year and Becca had died in her place.

She walked back to the area where Gibbs and the rest of the team were sitting and gave them their envelopes before sitting at her own desk and opening her letter, placing the ones for Abby and Ducky to the side for whenever they could come up and retrieve them.

That was another thing she remembered about Becca. She, Abby and Kate had gone out to lunch together about two months ago, right after Becca got engaged and right before she went to Paraguay. They had talked about a movie they had seen where the main guy had written letters to everyone he knew so that when he died he wouldn’t have to say he died with regrets.

So they each decided to write letters. Kate had a manila envelope with the five she had written sitting in a box at a vault, along with her will. She doesn’t know if Abby wrote any. Becca went beyond that with writing to everyone it seemed.

She could hear the others opening their letters, and she focused on her own. In the top right hand corner was a blue ink written date, stating that this was a version of the letter from only two weeks ago.

_Dear Kate,_

_I promised to write this letter, so I have. Hopefully, when you read this you will have bifocals that you’ll never wear and have to have your granddaughter read it out loud._

_I’m glad I met you. When I first came here, it was a strange experience. I didn’t know anyone, and anything I knew from being a FBI agent went out the window because was quite a different place. But you made me feel welcome, so thank you for that._

_Usually these letters are supposed to be leaving words of wisdom and what not. At this point in my life I think it would be an oxymoron to say I’m leaving wisdom. Perhaps some things for thought? Sounds better there._

_I don’t know where your relationship with Tony is at the moment you read this. If it’s when I hope you’re reading it, then you’ll probably be married and still arguing over Tony’s comments about the head nurse at your nursing home. If it’s earlier, then hopefully you’ve realized that you’re in love with him, and he with you. Perhaps it’s being engaged myself that I tend to look for everyone else to be in love. But I’m almost certain about you and Tony. You two just need to stop being so stubborn. You especially. Tony has never made it a secret that he likes you._

_I remember a lunch we had a few months ago when you were complaining to Abby and me about how Tony said that he knew you as a response to why he never asked you out. I said I didn’t know what he meant, but in a way I do. Tony likes you. He knows how you see him, how you would perceive him acting on his feelings. You would think he was making a joke._

_So if I have to make a great gesture as a farewell, I’m going to let you know that you have to let him know you actually see past the frat-boy act he puts on for the rest of us._

_Love ya,_

_Becca_

_P.S.  This letter will explode in ten seconds……*tick tick tick*_

She burst out laughing at the end, only now noticing the tears rolling down her cheeks. Becca had always had an interesting sense of humor. She was also a romantic, and she hadn’t been lying about being the girl who wanted everyone to have their happily ever after.

She looked over at the others. Gibbs was smiling wistfully at his; McGee was turned to the back corner, trying to hide his own tears. Tony was watching her. He wasn’t crying, but then he had done much of the crying last night and he was never one for public showing of grief. Unless it was one of his cars. He smiled at her, small and just for her. Different then his usual grin. 

She knew that some of the damage of their fight was fixed there, even though they needed to work things out.  Especially since she had to tell the others before too long.  She and Tony had never been able to stay angry at each other for two long, at least not seriously mad. 

She was broken out of her thoughts when the phone on Gibbs’ desk rang. He picked it up, his expression darkening as he listened before he hung up with a curt ‘ok’.

“I’m needed in MTAC.” Was all he said as he left and went up the stairs.

“This new director is really getting to Gibbs,” McGee commented as he folded up his letter and put it in his desk. The only signs now that he had been crying were the slight red tint to his eyes.

“Probably because she’s a redhead. And they seem to have a history.”

“You really think so?”

“How many people call Gibbs ‘Jethro’?” Kate had to give him that point. Several of the older agents and the former director had called him Gibbs though. The only person she knew that called him Jethro to his face was Ducky. And that very determined Sheriff.

The other two were still arguing about whether or not Gibbs and Jennifer Sheppard had been together at one point, McGee saying Gibbs would never date a co-worker, Tony stating that there had to be a reason for Rule 12. This was said with a pointed look in her direction, which she answered with a raise of her eyebrow.

“While you two boys argue, I’m going to see Abby.” She picked up her cell phone and purse, planning on spending awhile down there helping Abby. As she wasn’t at the scene, there wasn’t much she could do to help the other three on the team.

She was halfway to the elevator when Tony caught up with her, a light grip on her shoulder which fell to her wrist when she stopped.

“Katie, got any plans for lunch?”

“No, and how many times do I need to tell you not to call me Katie,” she responded with a roll of her eyes. It wasn’t as heartfelt as it used to be. Tony was the only one who called her that anymore, and it had become part of their routine. He just grinned, this time one of his usual variety.

“Well, how about having it with me?” She raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. They usually did have lunch together, especially on cases where Gibbs was more adamant then usual about solving and they ended up ordering lunch and eating in the office. “Alone, so we can talk.” 

Ah. He wanted to work on things today. Good idea, but Tony usually put off uncomfortable subjects till the last minute, so it was a surprise that she wasn’t forcing him.

But on the other hand, the two of them had gone through an emotional roller coaster last night. 

“Alright, but you’re paying this time,” she joked. He gave her a smile and squeezed her hand before heading back to his desk. “Tony!” He paused and looked back at her. “Mind if I tell Abby?” 

“Sure go ahead. Perhaps she can do all the telling for us.”

“Funny. You know you’ll still have to tell him.”

“No, you can tell him. He won’t hurt you. Me, I might have a concussion afterwards from that head slap.”

“What would cause me to give you a concussion, DiNozzo?” Kate had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing at Tony’s face as Gibbs walked up from the other direction. His mouth opened and closed for a few seconds, his eyes pleading for her to save him.

She walked towards them, deciding they might as well get it over with

“I’m pregnant.” McGee, who had wondered over to them while they had talked, smiled and walked over to give her a hug.

“Congrats, Kate.” He gave her a big grin. “Abby’s going to kill me for knowing first, though.” He didn’t seem too concerned about it. 

“I was about to go down and tell her right now.”

“Well, we might as well make a group field trip about it as we need to know what she has on the case” Gibbs stated, his tone not saying anything about his reaction to the news. She spared a look at Tony who was still poised to accept the head slap he expected, with a glare sent her way for not saving him. Gibbs walked over and grabbed his coffee and started to walk out of the office. As he passed her, he stopped and kissed her on the check. 

“Congratulations Kate.  Although I would have chosen someone better than DiNozzo.”

“Hey!” She finally laughed out loud then, following the other three as they made their way to Abby’s lab. That had gone better than expected. She was in a good enough mood to feel like throwing Tony for a loop, so she put her hand in his as they walked to the elevator, giving it a little squeeze. She had been the one who had insisted on no displays of affection while at work. Tony by his nature was demonstrative, so it had been harder on him then her. 

He gave her a side look, but said nothing, and squeezed her hand back.

They entered the elevator, and as the doors closed Gibb’s hand reached up and smacked Tony’s head. Tony glared half-heartedly at Gibbs who was smirking and Kate tried not to laugh.

* * *

 

Kate had not known a human being could make the sound that came out Abby’s mouth when she heard about the baby. In fact, she was pretty sure that half of it was above the decibel that humans normally hear at.

But she got the point that Abby was happy when the bubbly Goth rushed over and hugged her, squeezing her and jumping up and down.

“I cannot believe you let McGee know before me!” Abby stated when she finally let Kate go. “And you never told me you two were together!” There was a little bit of hurt mixed into the mock anger in that last statement. Abby was Kate’s best friend next to Tony and she usually told Abby everything about every date she had been on. Until her and Tony got together. No one knew about Paraguay. Or at least they hadn’t till today. And they probably wouldn’t know that was when they had tentatively gotten together. They would just assume they got together after they got back home.

“Oh, and the baby shower! I’ll have a couple months to plan and...”

“Abby! Case.” Gibbs said, holding her Caf-Pow hostage till she refocused her attention to the case of finding Ari. At the mention of the case, her bubbly personality was replaced by a more determined one and they all focused on the screen where the forensic evidence was displayed.

* * *

 

Tony and Kate went to lunch with the express command that they be back on time because the Director had a specialist coming in to help them catch Ari and they needed to be back to meet her.

So they chose an outdoor café about two blocks away from the Navy yard. It wasn’t the same one they had dinner with Ducky at almost exactly a year ago; instead it was a new one that had opened just a few weeks ago. Abby said their wraps were to die for so she really wanted to try them. 

Tony was still on antibiotics, and avoiding dairy products (he claimed the first thing he was eating after he was done with the pills was a milkshake and a bowl of ice cream), so the first thing was trying to find something on the menu that didn’t have any dairy on it. By the time they ordered, both they and the waiter were annoyed, and Tony was looking forward to being finished with his medication in a few days.

“You know, I had a plan for this weekend,” Tony began after a few moments of silence. “I was going to take you to our favorite Italian place for dinner.” She remembered him asking her to make sure she had no plans for that Friday, and she still had it open. But they both knew that until Ari was found there wasn’t going to be any dates or free time. “And I was going to ask you to move in with me.” Kate almost choked on the water she had been drinking. She had no idea that Tony was even close to the move in stage. But then they had been basically together most of the time lately anyway, so moving in together wouldn’t be that much different.

“Or me with you,” Tony continued. “It wouldn’t have mattered; I just wanted to move it to another level.” She wasn’t opposed to the idea. She just hadn’t expected it to be an option for a while yet.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Would you have asked me to move in with you? You never seemed interested in long term commitments, and moving in with you would definitely imply long-term.”

Tony went to answer but hell broke loose before he could get anything out. She felt something whizzing by her head and a second later a bullet embedded itself in the wall behind Tony’s head. They both ducked underneath the table as they heard the others in the restaurant rushing away. They looked around, trying to find the shooter, their own guns in hand. Kate spotted him, but it was too late as another bullet flew, this time hitting her arm a little below the right shoulder. 

She heard Tony’s gun go off, and saw the man drop but she was mostly focused on the pain. She pressed down on the wound as much as she could. Tony made his way over to her and helped her put pressure on her arm, allowing her to use her purse strap to slow the blood flow. With his free arm he called for an ambulance and then Gibbs.

So much for this being a good day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how I said I wrote this before Tony, Sr. came about? This chapter really points that out. I had a whole backstory for Tony that clearly doesn't fit actual canon.

“You know, I really wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” Jessica Francis said as she started to stitch Kate’s shoulder. The shot had grazed her arm, enough to cause a lot of blood but little damage to the muscle so she most likely would be released after the  stitches were finished and her arm was put in a sling to reduce her movement till the arm healed.

“Well, I figured I needed to see how well this place went along without our presence,” Kate joked, hoping that the pain meds Jessica had given to her would kick in soon. It might not be a fatal shot but it sure hurt like hell.

“Ah, so that cute guy over there is your boyfriend?” the red head asked, with a smile. Kate knew most of this conversation was to distract her from the pain and from the knowing that there was a needle going in and out of her arm.

“Yep.” She kept seeing Tony’s face full of absolute terror when she was shot. She knew that it had brought back what he had experienced the day before. It hadn’t been even 24 hours since Becca had been killed. And Tony had mentioned that for a few seconds after Becca had died, he kept thinking about how it could have been her. He still kept looking back at her even though the ER doctors had told him she was not seriously injured and would be fine but would need stitches. He himself was getting a check up because of his recent hospitalization as a precaution.

“Lucky girl.” Jessica was an OB/GYN resident, but was doing an ER rotation to fill in for another doctor who was out with the flu. “How about Mr. Grumpy over there? Any chance he’s single?”

“My boss, Jethro Gibbs. And you’re actually are his type. He likes redheads.”

“Lucky me,” Jessica responded with a smile. “I guess I should be glad Dr. Morgan got the flu. I get to meet a bunch of good looking men.” She started to put away her materials as she finished the stitching. She taped gauze over the wound and then wrapped it to hold it in place. Then she put Kate’s arm in a sling to restrict the movement.

“Don’t try moving your arm over your head for at least a week. If you have to get something from a high shelf, make someone else do it. You should be able to move your arm otherwise, though I would wait a day or two to do a lot of that. Luckily it wasn’t a deep laceration. And be careful! I don’t want to see you again unless it’s to get an ultrasound for the baby!”

Kate’s grin faded. She had completely forgotten about the baby. Hadn’t even thought about the baby, even after seeing Jessica.

How could she forget about that?

“Whoa, sit down,” Jessica stated as she noticed Kate’s pale appearance. She walked over and got an orange juice out of the nearby lounge and handed it to Kate, hoping the sugar in the juice would help.

Tony and Gibbs noticed as well and wondered over, both wearing concerned looks.

“Is she ok?” Gibbs asked, turning to Jessica as Tony went straight to Kate and sat on the bed beside her.

“She should be fine; I think that things are setting in now that the adrenalin of getting shot has faded. She has limited movement of her upper arm due to the wound’s close proximity to her shoulder, but she shouldn’t be too limited. I would restrict movement for the day.”

“Don’t worry. She’s not going to be leaving the Navy yard, or she’s going to stay home with protection.”

“What?” Kate said, the shock wearing off. “No, I’m fine, Gi...”

“Kate, Ari was aiming for you.” Gibbs was not in the mood for Kate’s professions of being fine. “He used a gun that is nicknamed Kate to kill Becca, and now a second shooter has come after you. Luckily Tony’s a better shot and Mr. Can’t-aim is going to be sitting with me in interrogation. We are not taking another chance. I’m having the whole team stuck at the Navy yard, and you can choose either to stay there or be stuck at home with guards. I’m not letting that asshole take another member of my team.”

“I concur.” Even Jessica turned to face the newcomer; another redheaded woman whom Kate assumed was Director Jennifer Sheppard. She had the job for a few days, working with Morrow to smooth the transfer, but Kate had yet to meet her. Beside her stood a tall woman, with long dark hair and dark eyes. There was an edge of familiarity to her, but not enough to make Kate think she knew her. She turned to see Tony giving her a look of appreciation and nudged his chest with her elbow enough to get his attention and then glared at him, receiving only a smile.

“Madam Director,” Gibbs said. Kate raised an eyebrow at the tone in his voice. He wasn’t happy about answering to this woman. What had happened in the past between these two? But then again, this was Gibbs.

“I came to see how Agent Todd was doing.”

“I’m fine, thank you, Director.” The Director seemed to breathe a sigh of relief before turning to the second reason for her visit.

“I also brought along the specialist who is working with your team to determine Ari Haswari’s connection to the case.”

“Of course he’s connected! He shot Becca!” Gibbs interrupted. “He’s taken Kate captive twice.”

“We need to find the evidence!” The woman looked slightly out of ease standing beside the Director, who turned to her then. “This is Mossad Officer, Ziva David.”

“Hello.” She waved slightly

Gibbs and the Director continued to stare at each other.

“Well, it looks like he’s taken.” Jessica stated in a voice only Kate and Tony could hear. “Got any more single agents?”

“Well, there’s Terry,” Tony joked. He squeezed her shoulder as they continued to watch the Director and Gibbs argue and glare and Ziva David trying to convince Gibbs that she was capable of apprehending Ari, even though she was certain that Ari did not do what Gibbs claimed.

This of course did not endear her to Gibbs. Or Kate for that matter. But she reminded herself that this woman did not know what Kate knew. She probably couldn’t see one of Mossad’s own acting the way that Ari did.

She leaned into Tony, who wrapped his arm around her, making sure not to touch where her gauze was located. It was odd, this new sense of being able to show that they were together in public. To be able to hold hands, or other physical showings of affection. But it was nice.

“So, have you two thought of any names yet?” Jessica asked, after scouting the ER to see if she was needed and finding herself unwanted.

“Not really,” she commented. She hadn’t really concentrated on the baby at all except for a few minutes here and there. It was still not quite sinking in that she was going to be a mother. “Besides, we don’t even know the gender yet.”

“Cameron,” Tony said with amusement in his voice. She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “I had a lot of time to think last night. And it’s a good name for both girls and boys.”

“And it has nothing to do with Cameron Diaz?”

“Of course not,” he said with a smile. It was a little strained she noticed. But she realized they still had yet to finish that conversation. He turned back to Jessica who presented another option.

“Well, I think we can release you now,” Jessica said after her and Tony joked about names for awhile (Alonzo was quickly vetoed). The Director had finally left, and Gibbs had ordered Kate home and Tony to protect her till a protection detail arrived. Ziva had frowned at that, obviously still not convinced of Ari’s guilt, but she said nothing, just a quick farewell to Kate and Tony and followed the two of them out of the hospital door.

~ * ~

The ride home was silent, but she could tell that whatever had been bothering Tony was still bothering him. She didn’t ask, knowing Tony would tell her when he got to it. He always did. He was never the ‘suffer in silence’ type.

She turned her thoughts towards the events of the day or rather the last month. So far in the past thirty days, Tony had gotten the plague, had almost gotten blown up, and she had been shot at, and would be dead now had she not been taken off active duty.

Maybe she should consider getting a safer job. There were a couple problems with that idea. One, she loved her job. Two, it wasn’t always like this. Just recently it had been. And thirdly, how was Gibbs going to be able to handle Tony AND McGee without her.

Ok, Gibbs could handle those two by himself. The main question was what the best was for the baby. She had already decided she was going to keep it, so she needed to decide what she needed to do to give it the best life it could have. Her mother no doubt would have an opinion on that.

“Crap.” Tony looked over at her outburst and raised an eyebrow. “I just remembered I hadn’t told my mother yet.”

“Think she’ll be happy about it?”

“She’ll be ecstatic. She’s been after me to give her grandchildren for years. She might be a little unhappy about the single part of the situation, but she’ll be extremely happy about the baby.”

“So should I expect any bloodshed caused by those brothers of yours?” Kate smirked.

“No, they have learned the hard way that I will cause bloodshed myself.”

“Somehow I doubt you doing it will keep them from trying something themselves. After all, I touched their sister. And plan to continue,” he said with a leer in her direction. She rolled her eyes but smiled.

“Somehow I think that will be considered too much information.” She noticed that they were leaving city limits. “Where are we going?”

“We decided that if we are going to protect you, we need to take you someplace that Ari wouldn’t know to look at. It just so happens that I have a house in Maryland that I never use. Gibbs thought it would be a good place to take you.”

“You own a house?”

“Yes. Why do you sound so surprised.”

“You rent an apartment, Tony. One which constantly breaks down on you. If I owned a house, I would not be living in an apartment.”

“It’s an hour drive from work, it’s too big for one person, and half the furniture in it came with the house when I inherited it from my Aunt Caroline.”

“I thought you were disinherited.”

“From my parents, yes. Aunt Carrie didn’t remove me from her will. She had about four or five properties and gave me one with enough money for the upkeep. I rent it out, or let my cousin use it when he’s in the area. He’s from the other side of my family, and for some odd reason likes the furniture.

“And its status right now?”

“It’s not rented out, and as far as I know Ben isn’t coming into town.” Tony turned off the highway and onto another road. “It’s a nice place. I think you’ll like it.”

Kate continued to watch Tony as he concentrated on his driving. She was starting to realize how much she didn’t know about him, even after two years of being partners, a half year of dancing around a romantic relationship and two months of an actual relationship. She knew a lot about him. Small things no one would notice, like the fact that when his hair was longer you could tell his mood by the way he styled it. That he hated sugary cereals except Capt’n Crunch, but had a sweet tooth the size of Wisconsin.

But she didn’t know that Tony thought about them being in a serious relationship. She hadn’t thought he’d ask her to move in with him. And she never pictured him owning a house of any sort. It didn’t fit her vision of him as a carefree playboy.

For a woman who was about to have his child, she had a lot to learn about him.

After about thirty minutes of driving, Tony pulled into a long winding road. There were various houses, with wide spaces between them. Halfway up the hill, he pulled into a driveway. The house was beautiful from the outside. It had a large yard big porch and a garage with an overhang next to the sidewalk leading towards the house. The door was etched glass.

 Once in the house Kate’s mouth hung open. It was beautiful. The front door lead to a dining room and what appeared to be a sitting area for a room adjacent to the first room. Then there was a large open area, half taken up by a kitchen with granite counters and cherry mahogany cabinets that matched the dark hardwood floors. A smaller table sat to the left while a couch sat in front of the mantel on the opposite side of the kitchen area doors, which had an opening for a large TV screen. The wall between the small dining area and the mantel was filled with large windows, including a set of sliding glass doors that opened onto a wrap-around porch. Three doorways around the room led to a bathroom and two bedrooms, one the master. Another open doorway led to the garage and a downstairs. There was a staircase to the small room upstairs that was designed to be a small child’s room and included its own bathroom.

She wondered if she could convince Tony to live here with the baby. Actually, they could have this kid and two more and still have a lot of room in the house plus an office or two. The place was huge.

She turned to face him after doing her own tour of the house to find him still standing in the doorway between the larger dining area and the kitchen/living room area. He leaned against the wall, arms and legs crossed just watching her. She smiled at him, getting a grin in return.

“So you like it?”

“It’s great. And so is the furniture. I’m not sure why you don’t like it.”

“Sit on that couch.” She did. It felt like she had sat on a rock.

“Oh.”

“Aunt Carrie was fanatic about her furniture. She put fixative on the couch. It’s probably a fire hazard.”

“Then toss it. This house is too good to pass up.”

“You can live here if you want.”

“Tony, unless you’re taking back your offer, you’d be here too.” She smiled to herself. At least she could still surprise Tony from time to time. And herself. She had been thinking about it all day, but hadn’t realized she had come to a decision.

She had finally thought what her answer would have been had she not been pregnant, and no one had died. And realized she practically lived with Tony anyway, and she had spent nights in the same hotel room. There was nothing that would be unbearable to live with.

She stood up and walked up to Tony, who had made it into the room and was next to kitchen island.

“You mean it?” He asked. He seemed actually surprised, more then she expected.

“Yeah. Do you think that is something I would joke about?” She wouldn’t have. She would have given him a clear no if she thought it was a bad idea.

But she did love the guy, and they were going to have a baby, so why not live together? It would make things easier. They wouldn’t have to drive to each other’s apartments. No second set of toothbrushes, or overnight bag. Everything would be together, intermixed. They’d probably fight over differences in neatness, but she liked the idea more as she thought about it.

Tony apparently did too, as he pulled her in for a kiss. Their first real kiss since they had found out about the baby. No work or fights to keep them apart, no lung problems to keep the kiss short. No thoughts about Gibbs legendary rule number 12. She stood up on her toes, so he didn’t have to bend his neck so far. She wasn’t that much shorter, but she knew it was still an issue. He wrapped his arms around her and lighted her up onto the lower level of the island, making her higher than him.      

He moved in close, standing between her knees. This was fun. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a good old fashion make-out session. Perhaps sometime in College. Tony and she had certainly never had one. But this kiss was less about where they were going (as it had been in Paraguay), but where they were. They were actually taking a step forward instead of dancing around it, and it felt good.

Tony’s hands were starting to creep underneath her jacket and top when this incredibly nice activity was halted…by the stuttering appearance of Benito Oliveri and his wife Amy who clearly had not expected to get to the house to find their cousin making use of the kitchen.

Kate groaned as Tony moved away and helped her down. It was embarrassing, but mostly she was just irritated in being interrupted. _Again_. They never seemed able to finish things.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, written before alot of Tony's backstory was on the show.

Kate sighed in boredom. She was currently laying on the bed in the master bedroom with the illusion of sleeping, while Ben and Amy were in the other bedroom watching TV. After the two of them had arrived, and the awkward introductions were given, they had gotten along fine. Ben was a lot like Tony, although perhaps a little more tactful and polite. Amy was a lot like Abby, but with brighter colored clothing.

Tony had returned to the office to get more details of the case from Gibbs and to speak with the protection detail which needed information about the layout of the house. That had been four hours ago. They had had dinner, and the detail was now here and had been for two hours.

She wanted to know where Tony was. They still had a lot to talk about and she _really_ wanted to finish what they had started earlier before Ben had interrupted.

She had talked to Abby on the phone and gotten her own update of the situation. Ducky had been kidnapped, and Director Sheppard still insisted it wasn’t Ari because Officer David insisted it wasn’t him. So they were out looking for Ducky while Abby and she waited behind worried as all get out and again, who knew where Tony was.

On the bright side, Ari didn’t seem to know where she was. On the negative side, that meant he switched his attention from using her as his plaything to hurt Gibbs to using Ducky to hurt Gibbs.

_“I’m not allowed in the lab anymore due to the windows. The Director has the team in the main room where more people can watch over us,” Abby complained. “How am I supposed to find them without my computer?”_

_“Can’t McGee get one of our office computers to connect to it?”_

_“He’s trying to do that right now, but it’s still wasting time. And I’m_ bored _, Kate.”_

_“I can sympathize there. I’m being sent away to a far off place till Ari is taken care of. If it wasn’t for Tony’s cousin, I’d be here by myself and there is only one television and it’s not hooked up to the cable as Tony doesn’t use the place much.”_

_“Tony owns a house?” Kate smiled at Abby’s surprise that matched her own._

_“Yep. A really nice house. And I’m going to convince him to move here.”_

_“So you two are thinking of moving in together.”_

_“Yep. Tony was going to ask me this weekend anyway, but of course things got in the way and now we have the baby to worry about.”_

_“Yeah.” Abby paused. She could hear McGee in the background complaining about Tony’s computer. She wondered how long McGee would live when Tony found out he had messed with the computer. For someone who liked to go through other people’s stuff, he was rather protective of his own. And then of course there were the items Tony probably had on his computer._

_Poor McGee. He was about to lose his innocence while digging around in there._

_“Tony’s worried about what Gibbs thinks about the whole situation.”_

_“Well, he’s probably finding out right now. Gibbs ordered him into ‘The Office’.” Abby paused. “He’s not the only one who should be worried about things.”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Everyone’s concerned about Tony breaking your heart, but he’s my friend too, and I’m worried you’ll break his.”_

_“Oh, Abby. I wouldn’t do something like that.”_

_“I know…I just felt it needed saying that Tony isn’t the only one who needs to be afraid of repercussions should you two break it off.”_

_“Thank you for worrying about us, Abbs, but I can tell you now that we will try our best not to break each other’s hearts. And I love him if that makes you feel better.”_

_“Thank you. And you know Abigail is a wonderful name for a girl.”_

After the protection detail had arrived, she had an interesting talk with Amy and Ben. She found out that they had been married for a year and that Amy was a journalist and had recently gotten an interview with the DC paper, which was why they were in town. However, the conversation soon turned to Kate and Tony. They hadn’t been surprised to hear Tony settling down and having kids.

_“We always thought that Tony would be the first to settle down.” Ben smiled at Kate._

_“But he’s such a playboy. He always had a new girl every week. That doesn’t seem like someone I’d place a bet on to have a long term commitment.”_

_“He wasn’t always like that,” Ben replied. “He used to be the steady type guy. He just had a series of really bad break ups, and he decided it was just better not to deal with the emotions and the tying people down stuff.” Ben paused. “Did Tony ever tell you about his ex, Natalie?”_

_“No,” Kate replied. She was sure she had heard about every other one but Natalie. Amelia, Karen, Tonya, Michelle. The list went on. Tony had never been quiet on his love life._

_“I suppose he won’t mind if I tell you. He’s always talked about you a lot as someone he’d trust with everything.” Kate had been slightly stunned by that admission. “Back when Tony had been in the Philly PD for a year, he had met Natalie, who had been visiting some friends from college in the area. She liked his fun going nature and he liked hers. She was from Baltimore and for about six months they had a long distance relationship, occasionally driving the couple hours to each other’s place. Tony wanted to be able to see her more than once a month or through phone calls so he transferred to the Baltimore PD. It appears that Natalie preferred the long distance relationship because up close it wasn’t as appealing and having Tony around kept her from her normal date scene.”_

_“She cheated on him?”_

_“Yes, and never hid it. To her it was natural. One just didn’t settle down with one person. She felt monogamy and marriage was something created to control the population and our natural state was the opposite. Tony was a one-person at a time kind of guy. He took it for about a year, before he called it quits”._

_Kate had known that Tony, while a playboy, had certain rules he lived by. He never dated a woman who was attached, and he never dated more than one woman at a time. He just never kept a long term relationship._

_“He stuck with the PD department for a few months, but I know he was thinking of quitting. The only thing that kept him there was the fact that Uncle Nick had told him once that he’d never be able to stick to anything. But then your Agent Gibbs found him and I’ve never heard any talk of quieting NCIS. Then again, if all the agents are as pretty as you, I wouldn’t think of quitting either.” That earned him a playful slap from Amy. Kate smiled at the action, knowing how many times she did that with Tony._

_“So you can see why we were so happy to know about you two. Even Uncle Nick was happy.”_

_“Tony told you about us?”_

_“Of course. He kept insisted that you were just friends, but we knew it was more. You made him happy, and you made him forget what Natalie had done. He still dated other woman, but I think the reason none lasted more than a week was because he already had you.”_

_“We only started to date two months ago.”_

_“Officially, maybe, but I think as far as Tony was concerned you were the one for him for a long time before that.” Ben paused. “You two haven’t really talked have you?”_

_“Not really. Life seems determined to keep us from having any sort of talk. Plus before a month or two ago, we had all kinds of excuses for not talking about it. Usually one or the other of us was in trouble, injured or sick.”_

_“Yeah, I got the call about the plague. I’m second contact on Tony’s emergency contact list.” That Kate was aware of. Tony had made her primary contact not too long after the mummy bride’s case, although he never told her exactly why he changed it. “He’s ok, right? Tony tends to hide when things are bad. He says he was fine, that there was nothing to worry about.”_

_“He could have died,” Kate stated, wanting to be as truthful with Ben as he was with her. “There was only a 15 percent chance he would live.”_

_“He said it was a close call, but he never said the odds. He said you stayed with him.”_

_“Yeah…I just…” She still could not explain exactly what she was thinking that day, except that half of it was pure terror at the thought of Tony dying._

_“It's ok, you don’t have to explain,” Amy said with a smile. “We understand.” She spared a look for her husband. She frowned watching the two of them, wondering what had happened in their lives that caused them to understand her feelings._

So that brought her to now. She was still up, worried about Tony. She was worried about Ducky, and Gibbs. Abby and McGee too. Not so much for Ziva, she had a feeling that girl knew how to defend herself, and the director she didn’t know well enough to worry about. Of course she didn’t want either one of them hurt, but she had only so much energy in her to worry about people. And she worried about her team first.

But mostly for Tony.

As if he had heard her thoughts, the door to the master bedroom slowly opened and she could see a Tony shaped shadow come in and close the door silently. He paused for a moment, as if trying to see if she was awake. It was dark enough that he couldn’t see her eyes open.

 He moved over to the master bathroom that was situated between the master bedroom and the office or sitting room or whatever that room was for that was off the entrance hall. He put some bags down and disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door, a moment later a stream of light came from underneath the door.

She smiled a little. He assumed she was asleep and was trying not to wake her up. She got up and walked to the bathroom silently as not to alert him. He was already in the shower when she got in, so she closed the door and waited, sitting on the edge of the large tub that sat across from the shower.

The shower was frosted glass, so she could just see the shape of his body but she enjoyed the view anyway. He didn’t seem to notice her, and she didn’t change that fact. However when the shower stopped she stood up to hand him his towel.

He didn’t notice that someone had handed him a towel and he hadn’t grabbed it from the towel rack next to the shower till he was almost dry. At this time he paused, facing away from her, and turned to look at her which ended Kate’s attempts to stop laughing.

He walked over to her with a smile and brought her close before giving her a kiss. While she was distracted he moved his hands down to her sides where he started to tickle her. She smacked his shoulder once she got free, still smiling.

“You should know better than to tickle me, DiNozzo.” She started to back up and leave the room, and he managed to take the hint and followed her, trying to tackle her again, this time catching her halfway to the bed, both of them laughing. But instead of tickling her again as she expected, he just pulled her into another kiss. One that is not so much a greeting as the last one was. It was one more along the lines of earlier that afternoon, or two months ago in Paraguay. The one she had always expected of him when she imagined kissing him long before they ever got this far.

Like that night in the car, watching the Petty Officer’s apartment when he was so close to her and offering to warm her up by snuggling like the Eskimos did.

She was never so happy that she was proved a liar. Forget alcohol. All she needed was him. But she wouldn’t let him know that. He had a big enough ego about this as it was.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her up to meet him. She was reminded that she had interrupted him getting dry after a shower as the remaining water soaked into her outfit. She didn’t really care. All the more reason to take the outfit off, plus she was pretty sure that the bags Tony had brought were clothes for her that Abby had gathered together.

His hands started to creep down her waist to where her shirt top ended, and then underneath the hem. She allowed him to remove the top, careful of her shoulder as she led them back towards the bed. He crawled above her as she lay on the bed, continuing to kiss her.

Then someone knocked on the door. She groaned in frustration, but Tony only shifted position and started to kiss her neck. Was it fate that she and Tony would never get to finish anything without someone stopping them? No wonder it took them two years to get to the actual dating part of a relationship.

“Hey, Kate?”

“Yeah,” Tony was making it really hard to answer, moving down her neck and onto her shoulder.  She glared at him half-heartedly and smacked his shoulder. She could feel his silent laughter as he focused in on her collar bone.

“Amy and I wanted to know if you wanted to watch _The Aviator_ with us.” No, not really. She was kind of busy at the moment, but how do you tell your boyfriend’s cousin this without letting him know that said boyfriend has managed to make his way down to the bottom of your rib cage at this moment.

“Ah, no. Go ahead without me. Thanks.” Her voice went up at little at the end as Tony’s tongue reached her navel. She smacked him on the shoulder again but he just continued to laugh, silently, into her stomach.

“Ok, night. You too, Tony.” Tony stopped in the middle of his next action, this time Kate laughing and not silently, either. They could hear Ben’s laughter as he walked away. He returned her earlier glare before kissing her mouth again and working on removing the skirt she had worn to work.

This time there would be no interruptions.

~*~

Later, still unable to sleep, Kate relaxed in Tony’s arms, knowing he was unable to sleep as well. Despite the momentary moment of happiness, they were both drawn back into the day’s events. They could still hear the soft sounds of the television from the other room. She sighed then turned to face Tony, slipping her fingers though his as they shifted to her hips from where they had laid on her stomach when she faced away from him.

“You were right about one thing.”

“Hmm.” His eyes were closed, but they opened then to look at her. She loved how his eyes changed shades depending on the lighting or his mood. They were darker now, more brown then green. She knew in artificial light they sometimes even looked blue. Natural light brought out the green.

“Your aunt had a horrible taste in sheets.” Tony laughed at that, pulling her closer and more comfortably.

“Yeah, well they don’t get used much.”

“They’ll be the first thing to go, right after that couch. Do you think it’s even safe to dispose of that? We might have to get a bio-hazard crew with it.” It was nice to hear Tony laugh, and have no sign of the problems with his lungs. There was still a slight wheeze, but nothing to be concerned about. He was nearly back at full capacity. A few more days and even that wheeze would be gone.

“So you still are set on living here?”

“Yes,” She smacked his shoulder. He’d probably have a bruise there tomorrow from the amount of times she smacked it tonight. “And you kept this from us! This house is so much better than your apartment. Does Gibbs know you have this house?”

“Gibbs knows. I got it a little after my broiler blew at the apartment. So I’ve only had it for a little over a year. He came over and helped me go over it to see if it needed any repair work. It was rented once, but the couple who rented it left after a few months.”

“Has to be the couch. I couldn’t imagine giving up on this house.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“There is enough room in this house for the whole team, plus their significant others to sleep over, the downstairs game room is big enough for Gibb’s boat, and there are four bathrooms, and two laundry rooms. Hell, if we wanted to, we could rent the basement as its own apartment and still have a roomy home.”

“So, did you talk to your mother?

“No, not yet. Not sure why. She’s was planning on coming up next week for a week visit before going to Miami to spend time with Calleigh. I might wait till then. Although she’ll probably figure it out the moment I pick her up from the airport. I’m already gaining a little weight, and Jessica says I’ll probably start showing more visibly in the next couple of weeks. Speaking of telling your family, are you going to tell your Dad?”

“Yeah,” Tony said with a sigh. “I know I need to. We might not get along but that’s not reason not to let him know he’s going to be a grandfather in a couple of months. Although Ben’s never able to keep a secret like this for long, so I could probably rely on him on getting the news around the DiNozzo clan. But it will make things worse if I don’t tell Dad myself.”

“You never talk about what went wrong with your Dad.”

“It’s nothing big….Dad and I just don’t seem to get along well, so we avoid each other to avoid fighting. No big issue that caused a rift. We were just never that close.” Kate didn’t say anything to that. She wondered if that was what had prompted Tony’s statement several months ago about not having kids.

“Are you ok about the baby?” She asked, suddenly wondering if he was dealing with it alright. He hadn’t wanted kids. It might have been an accident but she still had wanted kids, he hadn’t.

“Of course I am,” he said giving her a confused look. “I know that I’ve never given the impression that I’m the settling down kind, but you know I’m not going to be leaving, don’t you?”

“I know. You never failed to stay when you needed to. I’m not asking that. I’m asking if you _wanted_ to.”

“I’m staying because I love you,” he stated. “I have for awhile now. The baby is an extra incentive, but like I told you earlier, I was planning on asking you to move in with me before I even knew about the baby.” He paused for a second. “And I already love the baby too, though it’s still not really setting in that I’m a father now.”

“I love you too.” She decided not to comment on the last part of that statement. She was still having troubles adjusting to motherhood herself.

“Of course you do,” Tony joked, earning him a glare and another smack on the shoulder. But she could tell he was happy to hear her say it out loud. He leaned down to kiss her softly. 


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate settles in as she waits for Ari to be caught.

Kate woke up to find she was alone in the bed. It was mid-morning, so she had slept in, but she wasn’t surprised. One of the few symptoms of her pregnancy that she was showing was fatigue and she and Tony had not been early to sleep last night. She smiled, still half asleep as she remembered how they spent the night.

Maybe she could convince Gibbs to give them both the weekend off if they caught Ari today.

She sat up in bed and looked around the room. The blinds were still closed around the glass doors that connected to the back porch. The bags were gone, but she could see one the dresser drawers slightly open so she assumed Tony put them away when he woke up. She got out of bed and grabbed a pair of clean clothes before making her way to the shower.

After she was finished she walked back into the bedroom and noticed a note on the nightstand on Tony’s side of the bed.

Before she got to reading it, her cell phone started to ring.

She crawled over the bed to get to her phone and saw her mom’s name on the caller ID.

“Hi Mom”.

“Darling! Thank god you are alright. Did you think it was too much to call your mother and let her know that?” Kate blinked at her mother’s tirade.

“What are you talking about?”

“How about the fact that they showed a report on CNN about NCIS officers being shot by a terrorist.” There was a flight call in the background. “Then they don’t announce which officer it is. So after your poor mother has an hour of terror about her baby girl being shot to death on top of a roof, I get someone to tell me it wasn’t you. But do I hear from you? No.”

“Sorry, Mom. Things have been crazy lately.” That was an understatement, but her mother didn’t need to know that.

“Well, you could at least come pick me up.”

“What?”

“I’m at Dulles. I thought I’d come a week early and spend two weeks with you.” Kate flopped back on the bed. So much for a planned vacation with her boyfriend.

“I’m in protective custody mom. I can’t pick you up.”

“What?” Suddenly her mother’s tone changed.

“The agent that was shot looked just like me so they have me hidden away so they can catch the guy without worrying about me.”

“Could they find you on the phone? I know on all those CSI shows they can triangle something and get a location of someone using a cell phone.”

“They’d have to have found your phone, Mom. I think you’re good. How about I get someone to pick you up and take you to NCIS. Then someone there can bring you where I am. “

* * *

 

After arranging for McGee to pick up her mother, Kate made her way into the kitchen. Ben was gone, but Amy still sat at the island on a tall bar stool looking through a magazine. Beside her sat a pile of magazines.

“I decided since you have nothing to do but wait, we can start shopping for the baby.”

“I don’t even know what gender the baby is.”

“That’s ok. There are a lot of things that are unigender.” Kate stared at her for a second. “Plus it helps bring home the fact you’re going to be a mom.”

“You sound like you have done this before.” Amy smiled, but it was a sad one.

“I have. Ben and I were going to have a baby last year.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. You know how we said we understood the need to stand by someone you love no matter what? Well, that was Ben. He stayed with me even though they told him to go home or that it was hopeless.

“Hopeless?”

“My pregnancy was ectopic. I nearly bled to death internally. It was really touch-and-go for awhile.” Amy smiled again and decided to change the subject. “So, which would you prefer: Boy or Girl?”

Kate smiled in response and allowed Amy her change in conversation. She could understand the need to tell someone without actually talking about it. Hell, she couldn’t even explain her actions when Tony had the plague, she couldn’t imagine telling someone about losing a baby and quite possibly one’s life in the process.

“I’m not sure.”

“Close your eyes and try to imagine them.” Kate did as she was told and tried to imagine what her and Tony’s daughter or son would look like.

The firs t image that came to her mind was a little girl, about three years old. Eyes and face that came from her, but with Tony’s hair color. The hair was curly and fell in waves like she had seen in the one picture of his mother. Tony’s smile.

When she imagined a baby boy, it was almost entirely Tony, but with her darker hair.

She honestly didn’t care what gender the baby was. It was the old cliché, as long as it’s healthy, but she honestly felt that way. She didn’t think Tony would care either. A boy he could play sports with and if it were a little girl, she’d have him wrapped around her finger in seconds.  Either way he’d probably start them early on a love of classic films.

The girl was easier to imagine. So when she opened her eyes and said a girl they looked for things if the baby was a girl. They circled several things in the magazine and passed the hours looking through the big stack of magazines and catalogs that Amy had got a hold of.

She knew it was partially to pass the time, and part to get her mind off the fact that a man was trying to mess with Gibbs by trying to kill his team, which was his family. She in particular, but that was just his side obsession.

She hadn’t realized how much she would need for a baby. One of the magazines had a checklist for first time mothers and she was shocked at the list of items she would need. She definitely wouldn’t be buying any new designer purse for a while.

Her mother hadn’t arrived by the time dinner time had arrived, and neither had Tony or Ben. Both women started to worry about the locations of the three.

Ben fortunately came in shortly after seven. And shortly thereafter her mother called.

“Darling, you would never believe the day I have had!” Natasha started as soon as Kate said hello. “And you were being most under descriptive of the men you work with. You never said you worked with so many good looking men.”

“Mom, most of them are either married or too young for you.”

“I wouldn’t know about that dear. Marrying younger men is starting to be trendy now. Your Anthony is yummy.”

“MOTHER!” She could hear her mother’s laugh over the line and something sounding like someone coughing after drinking coffee. The sputtering sounded familiar. “You will not be going after Tony.”

“Of course not dear. If Mr. McGee here is to be believed, you already hold a claim.” The sputtering continued and claims from McGee of innocence. “Besides, I am much more interested in Jethro. You may keep Mr. DiNozzo for yourself.”

“Who told you Tony and I were together?”

“Oh, please. No one had to tell me, dear. I could tell by the way you talked about him when you called home. I haven’t had the pleasure of much time in his company but the way he said your name did have a tone of voice of a _close_ friend. So either you are together or are about to. It was the same way with Calleigh and Vincent.”

“Cal and Vinny are divorced, Mom.” She didn’t want to sound like Calleigh and Vincent. She wanted to sound like Kate and Tony.

“Stupid decision I think. It’s clear they are in love with each other. People make things so complicated these days. I swear, if your father and I had gotten married today, we’d have divorced. Have a fight, have a really bad bump, you get divorced. No one sticks it out anymore. It’s too easy just to give in and separate.”

Not wanting to hear a lecture on her sister’s failed marriage, Kate decided it was time to change the topic.

“Mom, I’m pregnant.” Silence. Kate frowned at herself. She should have found a better topic. She hadn’t meant to tell her mother already, but it was out there now and she couldn’t take it back.

“Love, if you wanted to change the subject you could just have said so,” Tasha said after a pause. “No need to make an outrageous claim.”

“It’s not outrageous.” Oh, how Tony would find that choice of words humorous. “In about 7 months you are going to have a grandchild.”

“You got married without me there?”

“No, Mom. We aren’t married.” More silence. Maybe she should have started with her and Tony moving in together and living in sin and worked her way to the baby born out of wedlock.

“But you are going to be, right.”

“No plans as of yet. We are just trying to get to tomorrow right now, Mom. We just decided to move in together. Maybe someday, but it’s not on the table right now.” She couldn’t see Tony going for the whole marriage thing, but he had proven her wrong before. And his cousins seemed to imply that Tony had wanted to get married in the past.

She could hear McGee ask her mother if she was alright. Her mother might be a flirt, and like shocking people with her comments, but she had very strong ideas on how relationships should go. One of her rules was that you should be married before you even think of having children.

And if you happen to get pregnant before you are married, you better get married fast and tell everyone the baby was born early. Like that ever fooled everyone.

Once you were married, you stayed married till one of you dies. Unless one of the couple is abusing the other or some other specialized circumstance. But otherwise, you made your bed so lay on it. Once the first marriage is over, you are allowed to do whatever you want.

Even if it meant going after your daughter’s boss.

But Kate was pretty sure her mother wasn’t thinking of Jethro Gibbs at all at this moment. Hell, Gibbs was low on her own thoughts at the moment.

“I assume the father is Anthony.” Kate bit back the sarcastic response. _No, Mom. It’s some random guy I picked up at the bar a few months ago. I think his name is Diego. Or was it Devin?_ Her mother would probably take it as fact instead of sarcasm.

“Yes, Tony is the father.”

“He is planning on supporting you?”

“We will support each other.”

“Does he love you?”

“Yes, Mom. He does. And I love him.” Kate knew that after the initial shock of her daughter not quite holding up the rules went away her mother would be ecstatic. Natasha Todd cared deeply for her children, and her most important rule for marriage was they found someone that loved them and would care for them no matter what.

And there was one thing she could be certain of. Tony would always have her back, be it in their relationship or work. Even if things down the road didn’t work, he’d still be there. And she was certainly hoping for things to work out.

She was feeling optimistic today. Things would work out. She’d be thinking of this conversation twenty odd years from now when her son or daughter was halfway through college, and about to celebrate their 21st and Tony was planning on taking them for their first bar hop. Of course, she’d probably kill him, but they would still be together and bantering and fighting as they always did.

On the other hand, twenty years from now, she could be married to some Doctor from Detroit and he’d be married to his third wife, some pretty blonde that was 40% artificial and actually preferred to be called Bambi. He’d be the playboy version of Gibbs.

But she preferred the optimistic approach.

“The baby’s due around Christmas time, Mom.” She continued. “I have an appointment Sunday to go get the first sonogram pictures. They did an ultrasound when I went in two weeks ago but I didn’t get to keep the picture or anything. Or really see anything.” Oh, great she was rambling. “But I’d like it if you’d come with me on Sunday and see the baby when I do.”

That got her mother out of her funk, and excitedly talking about the baby. Despite having several of her children already married, this would be Natasha’s first grandchild.

* * *

 

It was getting late when Tony finally called her. After a two-hour conversation with her mother about the baby (and a short conversation with Tony then when her mother had spotted him and decided to give him a hug and welcome him to the family), she had watched a movie with Amy and Ben. The phone call came at just the right moment, as the credits were rolling. Ben was asleep on the couch, and didn’t wake up at the sound. Amy just watched her husband fondly and with amusement as she tried to get up and change the DVD while Kate answered the phone.

“Hello,”

“Hey.” The relaxed note in Tony’s voice instantly made her smile. Earlier Tony had been his usual self, but his tone had been strained, and she knew it was because of the ongoing investigation into Ari. The fact that it was relaxed meant that there was a good chance that the investigation was over and Ari apprehended. “How was your day?”

“Good, boring though. Yours?”

“Well, I had the interesting experience of having Mama Todd taking me to task for getting you pregnant and not marrying you.” His voice held an element of amusement in it.

“Oh, no. She didn’t.” Tony let out a laugh. Beyond the laughter she heard noise that she recognized as road noises. He was on his way home.

“She did. But that’s ok. It’s nothing compared to what my Father is going to do when he finds out.”

“Is Mom coming home with you?”

“No, she said she had a friend in DC she promised to stop in and see while she was there. She’s going to spend the rest of the weekend there and then come to our place on Monday.” She smiled at that and flopped down into the extra large chair in the master bedroom. It was about the only piece of stuffed furniture that had managed to actually be comfortable and not doused in flammable chemicals.

“Our place?”

“Well, you seemed to like it so much, and we have to admit that the baby wouldn’t do well in either of our apartments.” He had a point. Her apartment was roomy, but it was still cramped and on a high floor. His was on the second floor, and tended to fall apart. “I’m kind of just doing things on a whim here, not taking the time to think them through,” he admitted. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“You’re doing fine. We’ll have to deal with this together.”

“We usually do.” She smiled once again. She knew what her mother had heard now. The “I like you a lot” tone Tony used when he talked to her. He had different tones for everyone. He had a “I’m just a playboy jock’ tone when he dealt with suspects and other agents. It usually made people think he was easy to pull one over, and they were often surprised to find there was something more to him then met the eye. Then there was the ‘big brother’ tone he took with McGee. And the loyal almost son-like tone he took with Gibbs.

It was hard to define what he and Gibbs had. It was a cross between a father-and-son relationship, and a brother relationship. Gibbs was just short of being old enough to go for the father figure category. But he often treated Tony in the manner she suspected he would if he were his son. She could remember when no one could tell Gibbs that Tony wasn’t going to make it after Tony disappeared on that one case involving the four marines.

It wasn’t easy to define her own relationship with Gibbs either. There were times at the beginning where she could have seen herself with Gibbs. There were moments when she almost thought about scrapping rule 12 and going for it. Tony had noticed it and pointed it out once or twice. But something always held her back, and as time went on, the feelings for Gibbs faded. He started to become just a friend, perhaps mentor. Ducky once described her and Tony’s banter as sibling rivalry over respect from a parental figure…meaning Gibbs and she couldn’t quite place Gibbs as a father figure. Crazy uncle maybe.

McGee was definitely in the baby brother category. She had been amused by him at first, and enjoyed teaming up with Tony to tease him a little, but over time she had found another friend in Timothy McGee, and started to care for him as she did any one of her brothers.

Abby was her best friend, and if she kept up this metaphor of a family her sister. They had clicked immediately. Ducky was another crazy-old Uncle.

She hadn’t spent enough time with Jimmy Palmer to put any relationship metaphor on him. Perhaps a cousin you only see at the dreaded family reunion.

Her relationship with Tony had constantly changed. As soon as she classified him as something, something would change or switch around. At first she found him annoying and didn’t like him at all. After a few cases she had found that she appreciated his sense of humor, even if eighty percent of it was something she couldn’t relate back to her mother. Then over time she settled into the brother-sister role, along with putting him in the best friend category along with Abby. She used this as a cover when her relationship with him moved into the’ definitely not sibling like’ category. That was an interesting stage, one that Tony slipped into and back out at various times in their relationship.

Cuba had shifted though her categories with Tony; she couldn’t even tell you which ones he had broken into that turn around.

Then of course that moment after the first Ari experience when he had snapped his fingers and talked about falling in love. He hadn’t broken eye contact till he sat down in his chair. That might have been where the tide started turn in the direction of Tony and less in towards Gibbs.

She wondered if Tony knew how close she had been to trying something with Gibbs. Probably best if she kept that to herself.

She remembered her second Ari experience and how scared she had been for Tony. How she could picture in her mind as Marta told her what she planned to do.

She never admitted to anyone what she had felt that day. Not even the assigned psychologist that Morrow had made sure she went to.

She almost told Tony a few weeks later when Gibbs made the two of them go undercover as a couple at an officer’s club that seemed to be the place a serial killer was finding his victims. Tony was the bait, as the killer seemed to take on naval officers who had serious girlfriends and attended the club. All the officers had been brunettes in their mid thirties. All killed while wearing their uniform.

So they were at the club, pretending to be wildly in love with each other (and honestly only half pretending) and Tony finally got to see how well he looked in a military uniform. He was enjoying himself completely. She on the other hand was worried sick and all she could remember was Marta’s words, as she pulled her own fingers though Tony’s hair.

Too bad their first kiss had been ruined by that.

She had never been so glad to catch a killer as when Gibbs interrupted their ‘pretend’ make-out session with the words that they had gotten the bastard who had killed four officers already. Turns out it was a Master Chief Petty Officer whose daughter ran off with a commissioned officer who matched the description of the first victim. But he never got the guy his daughter ran off with.

“Are you still there?” Kate was interrupted form her thoughts by Tony’s voice.

“Yeah, sorry. Mind wondered off.”

“I could tell,” he said with a laugh. “You didn’t react to what I had to tell you. They caught Ari. He’s dead.”

“Dead?”

“Yeah, he got cocky and tried to get Gibbs in his home. Ziva followed him there. They won’t give me many details, so all I know is that Ari left in a body bag and Ducky is happily preparing to file an autopsy report.” Ducky’s words, so long ago, after the first Ari experience came to her mind. _I want that terrorist on my table, Jethro._

She wondered if it was wrong to be grateful for someone being dead. Suddenly she really wanted Tony to be home and next to her. To celebrate, or just relish the feeling of not being afraid of who was watching them, she wasn’t sure.

“Are you almost home?”

“I’m about two steps away from the door.” She stood up and left the room, finding the only light being the one about the table where the protection detail had been playing cards. She rushed to the door to find Tony was about to open the door.

She might find this ridiculously cliché later when she reviewed the events of the day in her mind, but for once she went on instinct and jumped into Tony’s arms, ignoring the watching eyes of the four agents assigned protection detail and Amy. Her cell phone flipped closed as she wrapped her arms around his neck, ignoring the twinge of pain as the muscles in her arm stretched. She could feel his still open from where it was still in his hand holding her to him.

If this had been one of Tony’s movies, the scene would have faded out by now, and she was certainly glad the neighbors were too far away to get a good picture, otherwise they’d be the talk of the town tomorrow.

But at the moment, she didn’t care. She was finally free of her Bête Noire. And it was fun.

Come Monday morning, she could go back to her own life. Where she was Caitlin Todd, NCIS agent. Where Tony was her partner and he wasn’t out there by himself, she was a few steps away. Where she could tease McGee about Abby and Gibbs would come walking around the corner with his fix of Starbucks and a new case that had absolutely nothing to do with Ari Haswari.

She could also eat in an open air eatery again without being shot at, or being kidnapped by one of Ari’s henchmen.

And, as a bonus, the only person to run their fingers though Tony DiNozzo’s hair tonight would be her.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate adjusts in the aftermath, and tries to figure out the new director.

When Kate woke up on Saturday morning, she wasn’t alone. It wasn’t the first time she had woken up with Tony next to her. During the first week of Tony’s time at home after the plague they had shared a bed, but mostly because she had ended up falling asleep there. This was probably one of the few times where she had woken up without any clothes on.

The last time that happened was in Paraguay and the only reason why Tony didn’t get up before her was a hangover. Tony was actually an early riser which surprised Kate. She had learned from various overnight stake outs and nights at the office that Tony usually didn’t sleep a night though. He would sleep in batches. Never a complete eight-hour sleep in all the times she had to observe him.

This made it very odd that she found him still asleep. Even when he was sick, he’d wake up before her. She could hear his heart beat softly under her ear as she used his chest as a pillow. His arms were still wrapped around her.

This was nice.

She moved her head to look at his face. His hair was growing longer again. She remembered how long it used to be. She kind of missed that, but she realized that after fifteenth million times getting teased about the length of his hair when working for a military organization…even a civilian run organization… he probably wasn’t going to let it grow that long again.

She smiled as she inched closer to his face, kissing him to wake him up. Tony still needed to go to work for the briefings and aftermath paperwork for what went on yesterday. She had to go in and do her own paperwork, not to mention check her apartment.

She winced slightly as her shoulder reminded her that she wasn’t completely healed from her gunshot. The excitement of last night, learning she was finally free of Ari, had masked any pain she had felt till now. Especially as Tony hugged her to him, still half asleep. The muscle stretched and the stitches as well. She’d have to take one of the pain meds that Jessica had handed her that she had assured her would be ok to take as directed.

In the past month her medication intake was high and so was the amount of time spent finding a medication that would work yet not cause problems with the baby.

That was another thing. She needed to start baby shopping. She was sure that Abby would want to go with her, and no doubt her mother and Amy. So after she finished whatever paperwork Gibbs had for her, since she _had_ briefly been involved with the investigation, she’d go see if Abby had some free time.

Then probably pack for the trip to Pennsylvania for the funeral. Ken had scheduled the funeral on Monday so the agents who wanted to come could make the plans. It was a six-hour drive, twelve round trip, so most were staying overnight at a hotel in the area. She needed to make reservations for herself and the others on the team, knowing that Gibbs, McGee and Tony wouldn’t think of it before it was too late. Abby might have looked into it already, but since she was involved in the case, probably not. Most of the agents were attending a memorial service in DC and leaving the funeral for the agents closer to Becca to attend the actual funeral.

“Morning,” Tony mumbled becoming more awake. He rubbed his face before taking a look at the alarm clock. “It’s early.”

“It is, but we have a lot of things to do. Besides, it’s about the time we get up for work anyway.”

“That’s the point. It is _Saturday,_ Kate. We don’t have to go to work on weekends unless we are the On-Call team.” As Kate got out of bed, he rolled over and hid his head with a pillow although she could tell he was still watching her walk towards the shower.

When she came out, Tony was half dressed, and sitting on the bed, clearly not happy. She could hear Ben and Amy talking in the other room. She tossed the towel she was using to dry her hair in the basket near the door and walked to sit next to Tony.

“My dad knows.” He looked over at her, clearly not happy. “Aunt Liv is visiting up in New York and she called to see if Ben had made it here ok and that he was still going to come to her house after he’s done with the conference. He let it slip that we were here for the weekend and that you were pregnant and she of course got excited. And my dad caught on and now he’s on his way down here.”

“Well, he had to know sometime, Tony. Better now than when he gets an invitation for the kid’s first birthday party.” Somehow she knew he might have left it that way. 

“I just don’t want to deal with him. He never really got the whole idea of letting me live my own life. It’s half the reason we don’t talk anymore. Every time we do talk, he always has commentary to give of what I’m doing wrong.”

“Gibbs does that too.”

“Believe me, Gibbs does not do it to the extent my father does. Gibbs might not approve of me flirting while at work or dating my co-workers,” he said with a brief smile in her direction. “But he usually lets me do what I want, and then let me find out if it was a bad decision or not. My father is not so gracious. He’ll lecture me on my decisions.” He sighed and got up. “Well, I better get ready for work. Maybe if I can do the paperwork slowly enough I won’t have to deal with Dad till tomorrow. “

“Do you really think Gibbs doesn’t approve us being together?” Tony paused from where he was shuffling through his clothes.

“No. I think he has issues with the whole idea, but he could probably see it was inevitable. After all, even I saw it coming.”

“You did, did you? Do I want to know what you saw?”

“What? Are you going to tell me you didn’t notice the way things changed between us last year?”

“Changed yes, but that’s not an inclination that we would someday be in a relationship with each other. It just meant that we stopped pretending we weren’t attracted to each other.”

“I don’t think you noticed me, at least not like that, that first six months. You were a little preoccupied with a certain Special Agent in-Charge,” he teased. “Abbs and I had a bet going on for months whether you and Gibbs would break the ominous rule 12.”

“You thought I would get together with Gibbs?”

“Yep. Can’t say I’m upset that I was wrong. Abby never collected though. I probably owe her fifty Caf-Pows by now.”

“By now.”

“We bet on various stages of your relationship. The only thing I got right was that you would have a kid by now, and considering its mine, not Gibbs, I probably lose that one too.”

“So, you had my whole life planned out with Gibbs?” Kate was starting to laugh. “And yet you still flirted with me.”

“I flirt with all beautiful women. And just because Gibbs liked you, didn’t mean I couldn’t either.”

“You flirt with anything female-like,” she edited. He glared at her for that one, which didn’t help her laughing. She knew that that was still a sensitive subject, which is why she hadn’t said it bluntly. “I’m glad you were wrong.”

“Me too,” he said affectionately.

“So, if you owe Abby Caf-Pows, what would she owe you?” She regretted the question as soon as he turned to face her with that smirk on his face. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

* * *

 

Kate had no paperwork waiting for her at work. In fact, as soon as she arrived, Gibbs told her matter-of-factly that she was not involved in the investigation, and therefore had no reason to even write up a report. Tony had given her the ‘that’s not fair’ look before getting back to his own paperwork. However, before she could leave to go see Abby, she was called to the Director’s office.

She walked to the office, knowing that Gibbs and Tony were watching her form where they sat in the bullpen. She wondered what this was about. She knew she had to discuss with the director options about maternity leave, but wasn’t too soon for that?

She entered the office, saying hello to Cynthia as she past the secretary’s desk and moved into the inner office. She found Jen Sheppard at her desk, looking over papers.

“Sit down, Agent Todd. I’ll be right with you.” Kate did as she was told and looked around the office. The new director had been in office for only a few days but the difference was felt. Gone were the pictures and memorabilia that Morrow had kept. Instead it was filled with different pictures, and certificates. She noticed a few small framed photos placed around the room of Paris.

“Thank you for waiting, Agent Todd.” Director Sheppard came around the desk and sat on the front edge, near Kate. “I called you in here because I like to introduce myself to all my agents, and as you have been under protective detail recently I feel I wasn’t able to properly introduce myself.” The other woman smiled and Kate got the feeling the woman felt they had genuinely not gotten a proper introduction, despite meeting each other at the hospital. She took the offered hand and shook it.

“Congratulations on the promotion, Director.”

“Thank you. You can call me Jen if you like… just not in front of other agents,” she responded with another small smile. “I have a feeling that as an agent under Gibbs supervision we will be seeing a lot of each other.” Kate raised an eyebrow at that statement. The Director walked back to where her chair was and sat down again. “I’ve also been informed that you recently found out you were pregnant. Congratulations are due to you as well.”

“Thank you. It looks like the news traveled fast.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I only found out about it because I overhead Agent DiNozzo and Gibbs discussing it at the hospital. They were very concerned about you and the baby.” It wasn’t said in a specific tone, but she could hear the question behind it. Was she involved with her superior or her partner?

“Our team acts as a family.” She did not deny or confess. The fact that she and Tony were together was their own business, and nothing that would affect NCIS. There was no rule against being involved with your partner, although it was discouraged. She didn’t feel comfortable enough with this woman to talk about her relationship. She didn’t know where she stood on the matter.

“That sounds like Gibbs. I read his profile that the former director left for me. He wrote that he handpicked you and agents DiNozzo and McGee for his team, as well as the lab tech and medical examiner your team dealt with. “

“Did you know Gibbs before?”

“Yes, I did. I used to work with him myself. Which is another reason I asked you up here, Caitlin.”

“Kate.” Jen smiled.

“Kate, then. As you know, a Mossad Officer was working with us to investigate the murder of Rebecca Stanson. Ziva David has requested and received permission to act as a liaison officer to NCIS. I wanted to ask you to help me make her feel comfortable here.

“You are assigning her to Gibbs’ Team?”

“Yes.”

“And you have talked to him about this?”

“Not yet. It is a done deal, and Ziva should arrive to begin as an investigator on your team within two weeks.” The statement told Kate that Jen was well aware Gibbs was not going to like this, no matter what he thought of Ziva (and according to Tony, Gibbs seemed to respect the Mossad Agent’s abilities). Gibbs did not like someone choosing his team for him. But Jen was going to stand firm. She just wondered if Jen could stand firm against Gibbs better than everyone else. Because as far she knew, even Director Marrow let Gibbs have his way most of the time.

“I will try my best,” Kate said with a smile. She wanted to like this woman. She always preferred work where she liked her boss, and in the back of her head she wondered if she was going to do so here.

* * *

 

Kate was once again at an open air café, this time the one where she and Ducky had lunch on that day so long ago. Her eating partner this time was Abby, who had asked for every detail of what had happened in the director’s office.

“So Ziva is going to be on the team.”

“Apparently. I’m not sure how long Gibbs will let that be.”

“Ah, I think Gibbs will surprise us. After all, Ziva seemed to work well with us on the Ari case, even if she was trying to prove he didn’t do it.”

Kate sighed. That was one of the reasons she was skeptical about being the one to welcome Ziva. There was the rational side of her that stated that Ziva was just doing her job, and it would be the same if someone had accused Tony or Gibbs of murder. She wouldn’t stop trying to prove their innocence no matter what the others said. But the irrational side of her wanted her to stay away. She defended Ari, and Tony was attracted to her.

Ok, that last bit was a little bit petty and defiantly on the irrational side. Tony had very strong views on loyalty and fidelity. Tony would not run off with the new girl just because she was gorgeous and had a sexy accent. He’d probably ogle her and find some way of getting in trouble, but that’s about it.

“The Director wants me to help Ziva feel at home on Gibbs Team.”

“She probably feels you would know best how to adjust to being a girl on the team. Warn her about Tony’s flirtatious ways, McGee’s sexy tech skills, and Gibbs unique way of leading the way.”

“McGee’s sexy tech skills?” Kate teased, wanting to get away from conversation about Ziva. “Are you two on again?”

“No, that ship has sailed, amiga.” Abby said in her usual hyper way. But Kate was not a profiler for nothing. She could hear the ‘there is more to this’ tone to Abby’s voice.

“You never told me why you and McGee finally broke things off.”

“A cheerleader.”

“A cheerleader?”

“Yes. A cheerleader. Peppy, college aged cheerleader.” Abby slurped at her milkshake. “He flirted with her right in front of me. Like I wasn’t even there.”

“He probably was taking love advice from Tony, then.”

“Why, has Tony tried that on you?”

“Tony flirts with everything wearing a skirt, Abby. It doesn’t matter what the end result is, if you are female and attractive, you will be flirted with.”

“Including Ziva?”

“WHAT?”

“He didn’t, you know. He was too busy trying to find Ari and being mad at Ziva for thinking Ari was innocent.” Abby looked triumphant and Kate realized what had just happened. Abby had changed the subject similar to what Kate had done. The two women stared each other down, before they started to laugh.

Who else besides your best friend could tease you about your love life and still be on your good side?

“He cares for you Abby; you know that?” Kate had noticed that McGee was head over heels for Abby. Even Tony had stopped teasing him about it. It was hard to watch sometimes. But if being together would make Abby unhappy, then it certainly wouldn’t make McGee happy. And she’d prefer if her two friends were happy.

“I know.” Abby sighed. “I know.”

That was the end of that conversation. It was silent for awhile, both enjoying the outside air after being cooped inside for the last couple of days.

“I need to go shopping,” Kate mentioned after a few minutes of silence. “My clothes are starting to be a little snug.”

“Really? Already?”

“Well, they aren’t fitting me as well. I could probably go another week or so wearing them, but I think I better start looking for maternity wear before I start wearing sweatshirts and Tony’s dress shirts to work.”

“I know just the place. My friend Melody just had a baby and she found a store that she claimed had the most comfortable clothes that she was almost considering wearing them after the baby was born. And they were good clothes, not the kind you see that makes you look more like a house then you already feel like you look.

“Sounds great.”

“Come on, I’ll show you. I actually bought a pair of boots there. They were really comfortable and just like I want them. Which is odd, you know, buying maternity boots when you’re not pregnant. Do you think that means I have large feet? For that matter, why would someone pregnant want boots like that anyway?”

Kate was about to answer, smiling as she caught onto Abby’s contagious happy mood when she caught site of her mother out of the side of her eye.

Her mother was sitting across the restaurant; with a man she almost didn’t recognize. She remembered him from photos from Marrow’s office. Admiral AJ Chegwidden.

How did her mother know him?


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony ruminates, Gibbs and Jenny try to figure out their new relationship, and Kate tries to figure out what her mom is doing eating with an Admiral.

Tony swore he was in hell. Not only was he stuck doing mounds and mounds of back paperwork, and going to meetings on the recent terrorist attacks and the report on the Ari situation, he had to deal with the fact his father was flying down from New York.

On Wednesday, things had been looking up. He had the weekend off, so did Kate, and he was going to take her out to eat and then broach the subject of moving in together. They had been dating for a couple of weeks officially, and in a semi-relationship for the past two months. Maybe longer if you thought about.

In the past three days, he has had to witness a good friend die right next to him, have her blood on his face and have the instant thought of _that could have been Kate!_ He had felt guilty about that, something he would have to deal with.

Then he had found out he was going to be a father. That had been...an experience. One which he was still processing. At first it hadn't even registered. Just that Kate was pregnant. He hadn't even thought to think of him as a possibility. He had just been worried about Kate.

And of course there was the whole "she was pregnant during the plague" issue, which had thrown him into a panic attack. He had already been upset about her staying when he could have infected her. It hadn't taken him along time to figure out she was lying. If she had been infected, she would have been sick. The fact that he could of have infected her _and_ the baby was scary.

He had left after they had realized they had been fighting for half an hour over things that weren't really fighting matters. Just little annoyances that since they were already mad at each other anyway, they might as well get out.

He hadn't slept much that night. He never did really. It was something he had developed in high school. Luckily he had it under control for the most part and actually got some sleep, but it was still not a lot.

He had a lot to think about, which hadn't helped things. He thought about the baby, and how that was going to change things. He thought about his relationship with Kate. The two subjects went back and forth in his brain, and he hadn't gotten to sleep till three in the morning.

One thing that had bothered him was that Kate had waited two weeks and hadn't told him. Had she not told him because she couldn't figure out how? Or maybe because she didn't think he'd want it or maybe she didn't want him involved.

It still bothered him, although he had pretty much ruled out the last couple possibilities. She had told him she loved him, which was definitely a positive.

He had known he was in love with Kate Todd for about a year now. He had no idea when he had actually fallen in love with her, but he remembered the moment he realized it. They had been undercover in a club. Kate had been dressed in this outfit that he really wished she could have kept. It was a club dress, with its hem barely reaching an inch about her knees. It flowed from her waist, but was tighter from the waist up. The sleeves were full length, belling out at the end. It was various shades of blue and green. He was in a navy uniform, pretending to be Commander Anthony Martian. It had been fun playing date with Kate and he knew half the time he wasn't even acting. Neither of them was. The kiss knocked him off guard, and it was when Gibbs told them that they had caught the suspect and Kate pulled away that it hit him.

He hadn't wanted it to be pretend.

At first he brushed it off, thinking it was just lust. That had been standard in their relationship from the get-go. But he started to notice things that had nothing to do with sex. Things like how she had a special smile she gave when she had a lead, or when she was about to tease him. There was even a difference between the smile used to tease him and the one used when teasing McGee.

After the case of the Mummy Bride (not to be confused with the case of the Mummy Officer), he had pretty much come to the conclusion that whatever it was he felt it was not mutual. Kate wanted to be just friends.

However, that did not stop him from enjoying playing her boyfriend, even if it was for a mock-couple who wanted a paternity test. Or annoying her by coming into the bathroom while she was showering.

He did however try his best to show he wasn't even considering the thought of being with Kate. Gibbs would have killed him was his primary motive right after he just didn't want Kate to know he was serious when he said some of the things he did. Going after Paula was part instinct and part diversion. He wasn't that upset when she said no. Nor was he that upset that he didn't end up dating Amy. He was more upset by the fact that Kate seemed actually interested in Montelleone.

After that case, things just picked up and he didn't really have the time to dwell on it. First Ducky almost got exsanguinated, and then McGee lost his quasi-girlfriend on a case. Despite his teasing, McGee was his friend, and Tony looked at him as a younger brother almost. It was his job to tease him, but it was also his job to support him when things went wrong and he needed someone there. He knew Kate felt the same way about the younger agent.

Then there was the case of the Marine whose wife was sleeping with his best friend. Kate had just had to ask that question. Why hadn't he made a move on her if he thought she was attractive? He knew her. He knew she wouldn't be receptive. He knew she preferred guys like Gibbs or Harrison. Guys who were mature. Ones whose hobbies didn't include watching every John Wayne movie and memorizing the lines. He knew that if he tried anything he would have his ass kicked by her, and then by Gibbs, who probably add a pink slip to it.

He decided the best way to deal with this was go back to the same old interaction with Kate. Tease her, flirt with her, but always make it look like he was doing it more to annoy her then actual intention. This worked, although the tensions rose between them and even Ducky was going crazy trying to deal with them.

Things broke in Paraguay. Oh, did he love Paraguay. It was warm; it had been a case where the bad guy didn't get off scot free even if it wasn't though the justice system but by a sniper's bullet. And he and Kate hadn't kept up that wall between them that been holding them back.

Granted Paraguay was also the reason for part of the situation he was in, but that was another topic all together. The whole case had been different. Sitting in that car with Kate had been an interesting experience. Nothing had happened, but something had changed. He still wasn't sure what. But they had flirted with each other, still saying no, but almost saying yes. And then Gibbs had let him choose who to take with him to Paraguay. McGee had been disappointed but the smile on Kate's face when he mentioned Paraguay where the weather was warm had been worth anything.

Kate had decided what happened in Paraguay stayed in Paraguay. He had agreed with that, if only to save himself from the wrath of Gibbs. But eventually that had fallen though, especially after he got sick.

Kate had spent the week he was at the hospital visiting him. If she wasn't there, Abby or McGee were. She was the one who took him home and stayed with him when she wasn't required for work. They both recognized that she was acting like a girlfriend, and both noted they didn't mind. They had had a talk and had decided that they might as well give in, and officially began to date. They both considered Paraguay the first date, however.

He had been so happy to be back at work. After half a week of feeling like he was breathing though a straw, then another week or so with nothing to do but watch movies and hope Kate got home early, he was in need of something to do.

Kate had been excused from the case that day, looking a little worse for wear. Gibbs had teased her about her cold from a few weeks ago. Rebecca had been happy to stand in, her cocaine case was turning out to be fairly easy to process and Terry hadn’t mind finishing on his own.

He still hadn't been up to full strength, and that had been brought to his attention very clearly when he barely outran a bomb. Hopefully no one had told Kate about that yet. She'd kill him herself.

Then there was the roof. Becca had taken a bullet for Gibbs, and was joking about what she'd make Gibbs do to pay her back.

He hadn't even registered the second shot till he felt the blood splatter against his face. Gibbs had instantly gone for who had shot her, while Tony's first reaction was to look at her.

Becca lay on the ground, her eyes still looking at him, her mouth still formed into a smile. And she looked so much like Kate at the moment that his heart had just dropped. Gibb's whispered Ari brought him back into reality.

He wished he had been there when Ari was shot. The man had tried to kill Kate, Ducky and Abby. He had succeeded in killing Becca. He had wanted Ari dead almost as much as Gibbs did.

No one hurt Gibb's family and did not face the wrath of Gibbs. And Tony refused to let anyone hurt Kate.

 

* * *

 

Gibbs watched as Tony worked his way through the pile of paperwork. The younger agent's face seemed calm, but he could tell from years of knowing him that Tony was far from calm. He was agitated and a series of emotions crossed his green eyes as he worked through his report on the events of the past week.

This past month had been hell on his agents. Kate, Abby and Ducky had been attacked. Tony had nearly lost his girlfriend and had learned he was going to be a father. McGee was learning for the first time that it was very plausible one of these days one of them wouldn't walk back. Rebecca Stanton's desk stood empty and glaring. Terry was holding up fine, acting much like Tony was. If you don't focus on it, you don't have to deal with it. He had been throwing himself into a case until the Funeral on Monday. Gibbs knew Kate was still feeling a little bit of guilt since it was clear that Ari had believed that Becca was Kate.

The whole building was subdued. Becca had been friendly to everyone. It was always a hit to the stomach to lose a college, no matter how. The fact that Becca had been taken so soon, and in such a violent way had the whole agency thinking.

Gibbs turned his view to the staircase behind Tony where Jennifer Sheppard stood watching his team. She smiled at him, recognizing that he knew she was there. There was sorrow in her eyes, and a look of sympathy for the people who worked here. She had never known Becca. Her first day of work had started with Becca's death.

He had to admit that he still felt a stab every time he saw her. His affair with Jen had not been casual. And he knew he still felt something for her, and he always would. She was the only person who had truly held his heart since Shannon had died. He turned to look at Tony again. He had warned his agents ever since Jen about dating co-workers, reworking Shannon's "Never date a Lumberjack" rule into the infamous "Never date a co-worker". But either the message didn't get through to Tony who heard it for four years or there was something to Kate & Tony other then sexual attraction and a mistake that was going to affect them for years.

Having known these two people, he was leaning for the later. Kate did not do flings, and Tony did nothing but. But he knew things that others did not. Half the reason why Tony had so easily been convinced of working of NCIS was his recent break up with Natalie.

He had met Natalie once. When Tony was doing the final trip of moving to Washington she had shown up. She had read the write up about "Detective DiNozzo" finding a serial murderer in the Baltimore area. Apparently he was an assist. But the damage had been done and Tony mostly ignored the woman.

Natalie for the most part was gone, but every once and awhile she still called Tony when she figured a chance of pace was needed. She apparently hadn't gotten the clue. Reminded him of his third wife, who had finally stopped calling on their anniversary after last year.

"Gibbs, can I have a word." Both his and Tony's attention where brought back to Jen, who stood more rigidly, which meant she had gone into “Jennifer Sheppard, Director” mode. Jenny mode was more relaxed but he wasn't seeing much of that part of her lately.

Tony looked over at him as he stood up and made his way towards the stairs. He almost stopped at Tony's desk, but he decided against saying anything to the younger agent till after his conversation. The last thing Tony needed was yet another person to confront him about his relationship with Kate. He'd deal with the fact they were breaking one of his rules later.

He got to the top of the stairs and followed Jen into her office.

"You wanted something, Director." Jen stood facing the window, one hand on her hip while the other rubbed her neck. She was clearly uncomfortable with whatever she was going to say.

"I've pulled out the files on your agents." She turned around to face him, leaning against the desk

"So I see." The pile wasn't hard to spot. Several inches thick, it sat on her desk, in the middle, half hidden by Jen's body. He almost wanted to get a triangle to see if it was perfectly angled as he thought.

"I would like to hear your thoughts on your agents first. You know them better than anyone else here at the agency. Probably better than I ever could even if I memorized every word."

"They are all good agents." Jen raised an eyebrow clearly wanting more. "What do you really want Jen? You know I wouldn't have them on my team if they weren't the best Agents I could have."

"I do know that. But I assume there is more to their skills then just complementing your gut instinct. Why don't we start with Agent Todd. What should I know about her?"

"She's a profiler, used to work for the Secret Service. Has strong skills in protection detail and is getting better with interviews and interrogations. She does have a flaw of getting too close to the victims or letting her personal experiences affect how she views them, but she's getting better and it rarely happens."

"She will need to go on maternity leave in a few months. She hasn't reported her pregnancy officially, but considering it’s on her medical records that were sent here for injuries while on duty, I'd say it practically official anyway. Scuttlebutt is that the father is a fellow NCIS agent."

"He is." He wasn't going to tell her this. It wasn't any of her business. He knew both Tony and Kate could leave it out of the office. And if Jen thought the baby was his, well that was her problem, not his.

"Jethro."

"Jenny."

"You know I need to know who it is. Not only does it affect the abilities of your team, it also affects me as I have to arrange for paperwork for both of them."

"Never underestimate the government's ability to kill trees in its efforts to know everything. I'm not going to tell you Jen. Either ask Kate herself, or wait till Kate feels the need to tell you. It’s none of your business. It’s barely any of mine." He grimaces as he notices her triumphant expression. She already had an idea on who the father was. He just confirmed it wasn't him, which left her with one other person.

"How about Agent DiNozzo. Why is he on your team?" He continued to frown. Why was it that this woman had him spilling things even after he swore he wouldn’t? All kinds of people tried to manipulate him into saying things, but there were only three who had ever succeeded. His mother, his first wife Shannon, and the woman standing in front of him.

"He has good instincts. Found him on a case in Baltimore. Figured he was better use to us then they were. He solved the case by noticing things that no one, not even the team I took with me noticed."

"So, he's basically you, just without the bitter outside due to years of experience." He didn't respond. "Agent McGee."

"Young, but he's learning. Has computer abilities matched only by my forensic tech.”

Jen waited a moment, but she knew from Gibbs' expression she was lucky she got the information she got. "Onto other matters. I have a case for your team, minus agent Todd. Since Agent Todd is going to have restricted field duty due to her pregnancy, I have a special assignment for her while you and your other agents along with Paula Cassidy handle this case." This was the part she dreaded. She really didn't want to tell him he'd be seeing one of his old suspects again.

 

* * *

 

Kate walked over to where her mother sat, Tasha seeing her just as she passed the table next to them. Her mother stood and smiled offering a hug to her daughter.

“Good Morning, Darling.”

“Morning, Mom. You never told me you knew the Admiral.”

“Oh, yes. A.J, this is my daughter Caitlin. She’s the one I told you about.” Kate almost groaned. Who knew what her mother had been saying about her.

“Pleasure to meet you, Caitlin. Congratulations on the new baby.” He pulled out a chair for her.

“Thank you.” She was starting to get tired of the congratulations, but she took the proffered chair. “This is Abby Scuito, a friend of mine,” she said as she motioned to Abby who followed her over to the table. The Admiral had pulled another chair out for Abby and moved down to sit next to Tasha, leaving Abby and Kate next to each other.

“Nice to meet you Mrs. Todd, Admiral,” the Goth said politely.

“I was just telling AJ here about why I’m in DC early. He’s visiting as well, you know. A good friend of his is getting married.”

“Bride or groom?” Abby asked, looking honestly interested. Kate found it slightly funny that for a girl who as a tad commitment-shy the tech had a great love for weddings.

“Both actually,” AJ said with smile. “They were two of my officers before I retired from JAG.”

“Captain Rabb and Colonel Mackenzie,” Kate supplied, remembering a wedding announcement she had read in the paper a few days ago. Back when her life was not quite as complicated.

“Yes, do you know them?” He took a drink of his lemonade.

“No, but my boss does. Agent Jethro Gibbs worked on several cases with them I believe.”

“One could say that. It was a little over two years ago that Gibbs worked a case that almost put Harm in jail for a murder he did not commit. I have to say I respect Gibbs for his perusal of the truth. If he hadn’t reopened the case, Harm might not have had chance.” While the Admiral might respect Gibbs, Kate had a feeling that neither of them would enjoy a dinner together.

“So I suppose since I am able to see you this fine and sunny morning, they caught the bastard that was after you.” Natasha’s tone of voice belayed more than the words the level of contempt she held Ari Haswari in for trying to hurt her daughter.

“Yes, he was caught last night at Gibbs house.” Kate decided it was probably not a good idea to share the case with her mother. Or the Admiral. “Director Sheppard is having a press conference on it later this afternoon.”

"Well, I need to go, my lunch hour is almost up," Abby stated apologetically. They probably would have never made it to the store before Abby's lunch hour was up even if they hadn't stopped by.

"May I offer you a ride to the Naval Yard?" The Admiral asked. "I am on my way there to visit some old friends of mine."

"That would be great, thank you."

The Admiral and Abby said their goodbyes, leaving the Todds sitting at the table. Tasha had planned on going to visit her daughter, but the fact that Kate was here now made that plan obsolete.

"We should go shopping. And I want you to tell me about this young man of yours. I didn't get a chance to meet him the other day." Tasha grabbed her bag and started to stand as if to make her way to where the shops were. Kate stood as well, but didn't move from where she stood.

"Are you going to tell me how you know the Admiral?"

"We were friends."

"Really."

"Yes. I knew him in high school." Tasha's tone was one Kate recognized as the "I don't want to say this out loud, but this topic is closed" tone. Just the tone she had used when they asked her about what had happened to her husband. "Now where was this store that Miss Scuito mentioned?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Families meet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter where its obvious I wrote this long ago. A Lot of this goes against canon, at least with Tony's backstory, and I think a little of Kate's revealed family that came into the picture after season 4.

Nicholas DiNozzo had long since realized that he would never win the ‘father of the year’ award. He loved his son, and wanted the best for him. And it hurt when he found out important developments in his son’s life not from Tony himself, but from Ben, or Olivia. He also knew that Tony would not really want to see him right now.

It wasn’t actually his idea to come. It was his father’s, the first Anthony DiNozzo. He had decided that the family would gather in DC, since Liv’s son Benito and his wife were already there. They could see who this woman was who was going to be adding to the DiNozzo line. Liv had jumped right up to use her brand new laptop to order tickets. She loved traveling, and knew the best way to get to DC. Before Nick could even register that his father was deciding for him, he was being pushed into his room to pack.

It had not always been this way. Between him and Tony, anyway. The elder Anthony had always said things and had them done. It was part of being the family patriarch.

He could remember the day Tony was born. Mary had been overjoyed to welcome another son. She had always wanted a large family. He was of the opinion that one or two was enough. Fate would make him win that particular battle, though years later he wished he hadn’t. But that day he had figured he had his two sons, and perhaps a daughter in a few years and that would be a nice sized family. Their oldest son Alex had been eagerly awaiting his baby brother.

Tony had been named after both his grandparents. It was part tradition (Nick was named after his own grandfather) and part honorific (Mary’s father David had died a short time before Tony’s birth). He had been a very social baby. Always happy when there were people in the room. It seemed that never changed, though he had a feeling that his son had inherited his ability to have two versions of himself. The one you allow everyone else to see, and the way you are when you are alone or with close friends.

However, when Tony was almost a year old, tragedy stuck, and their happy family radically changed. When their oldest son died, Mary seemed to die with him. She refused to talk about him, not even to Tony. In fact, he was pretty sure Tony wasn’t even aware he had an older brother. She started drinking to numb the pain. At first it was barely noticeable, but as the years went on she got worse. Tony never seemed to notice, till he was about ten and her heath started to be effected by the amount of alcohol she had consumed over the past 11 years. By the time Tony was twelve, Mary had died of heart failure. Ironic, considering Alex had died because of heart condition.

Unlike his wife, he hadn’t turned to alcohol till much later. His way of dealing with it was to be overly cautious with his youngest son. It probably did more to alienate his son than anything else. He brought him on his civil war trips, trips to the office. He watched his son like a hawk.

When his wife died, he then started to self-medicate with the alcohol. Never to the extent that his wife went, but he certainly was not a casual consumer. He started to marry woman who were simply interested in him. The emotions that had guided his first marriage were not involved in any of his subsequent marriages. In fact, almost all of them ended in divorce. One of his wives was an older woman who died after a few years. Only one of the other four still kept in contact with him. Sherri had probably been the best choice out of all his marriages post Mary. She had gotten him to loosen up on Tony, and let him start living his own life.

So here they were, with Tony starting his own family and he was being forced by his father to go see his son. A son who didn’t want to see him or even tell him when he was dying of the plague. Whose girlfriend or fiancée or whatever she was probably had heard every horror story. Hell, if you listened to Ben, Tony considered his boss more a father figure then Nick.

Nick was brought out of his thoughts when Anthony smacked his shin with his cane. The cane was purely for looks, the elder DiNozzo did not need it. And it hurt.

“What?”

“You were brooding. It won’t help you to look at the past son.”

“I don’t see why we need to go down there. Tony is fully capable of handling the situation.”

“It is my duty as father of this family to look over the person who is entering our family. She needs to be a strong woman. Someone able to keep up with the men.” Nick bit back a retort. He knew exactly what Anthony meant by ‘a strong woman’. Anthony had not held back his opinion of Mary. He wanted his grandson to marry someone who was stronger. Someone who could handle things better then Mary did.

Since Anthony had never lost a child, he wasn’t sure his father could really talk there. But he was right in the keeping up with Tony part. His son did not need a wife who would blindly let him do what he wanted. He had married such women. Tony needed someone who could stand up to him, who would rein him in, and vice versa.

Nick knew well enough that sometimes having a fight was better than never fighting at all.

 

* * *

 

Natasha Todd loved all her children. She had wanted a large and happy family, and that is what she got. Three sons and three daughters. They now lived scattered across the country, only her eldest Mitchell living within visiting distance. Her second oldest Adam lived in California as a computer forensic specialist. Grace lived in New York, and Tasha was never quite sure what it was that she did. She got letters and emails once and awhile enough to know the big things, like both her weddings and divorces.

Tasha had not been happy to hear of those, but it helped not to know much about the men that had married her daughter. Nor why she had left them.

Then there was Caitlyn who lived in DC, and was currently beside her going through a rack of maternity shirts. She was far from ready for them, but Tasha figured there was no time like the present to at least look around. Better to be prepared.

Her two youngest, twins Jackson and Calleigh, lived in Miami. Calleigh was a journalist with a Miami paper while Jackson worked as a graphic designer for one of the firms there. Calleigh was going through a divorce. Unlike with Grace, Tasha had met Vincent Esposito. Vinny had been a nice boy. It broke Tasha’s heart to hear about the divorce.

What was it with her girls and not sticking to their marriages? She had been happily married for 15 years before her husband took his life, and she couldn’t understand why no one seemed to have the will or the desire to keep a marriage working.

Caitlin had surprised her. Out of all her children, Caitlin had been the most likely to stay true to the values she had brought her children up to believe in. Yet, it was clear that Caitlin had no intention of marrying the father of her unborn child. However, Natasha was going to be there for at least a week. A lot of things could change in that amount of time.

She had met her daughter’s significant other briefly the other day. She had had a brief conversation with him when he stopped for lunch from his investigation. She made her opinion clear on the fact they were unmarried. Tony had reassured her he didn’t intend for that to always be the case. But she hadn’t gotten anything towards them getting married before they had the baby.

She spent most of the day trying to stay out of the way as Timothy (the nice co-worker of Caitlin’s that had picked her up) and the others worked to catch the bastard who had tried to kill her daughter and who had succeeded in killing someone else’s.

Her heart went out to Rebecca Stanton’s mother. No mother should have to bury their own child. And she knew it was not right, but part of her wished the man who killed her rotted in Hell.

No one threatened her children.

NCIS had been an experience. She got to see her daughter’s workplace. It was full of hardworking people, some who had stopped and said hello to her when they learned that Kate was her daughter.

She had sat at Kate’s desk and watched as Jethro and Timothy and a nice young woman named Abby worked on catching the bad guy. She had watched as a pretty woman with flowing red hair oversaw the operation with air of confidence…and only slightly hidden nervousness.

She wondered about Anthony. Her daughter had talked about him a great deal in the past two years, but nothing to give her mother a hint as to the fact they were romantically involved. She knew her daughter felt something for this man, but he’s feelings for her were harder to see. She knew that Kate had said he was a bit of a playboy. She hoped he wasn’t still acting in such a manner. If he was, she would have to speak with him. No one played around with her daughter’s heart. And she wouldn’t allow her grandchild to be given such an example.

“What do you think of this one, Mom?” She turned and smiled at her daughter who was currently holding up a black top with thin straps that looked quite pretty. “I could wear it at work.”

“You are still planning on going back to work?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

“You got shot at!” She knew it was pointless to argue with her daughter as to her occupation. She had tried that several years ago when Kate had told her she wanted to be a secret service agent. She had tried it even earlier when Kate dropped out of Law school to go into law enforcement instead.

“That doesn’t happen all that often, Mom,” Kate pointed out with a sigh. Tasha had heard this before.

“I would think you would at least go on leave to the baby is born.”

“I will, in a few months. I'll probably wait till a month or two before the baby is born. Don’t worry mom. I doubt Gibbs will let me do anything dangerous. I’m fully capable of doing my job right now.”

“You never were cautious were you,” Tasha said with a fond smile towards her daughter. “Now where are these boots your friend was talking about?” Kate pointed towards the shoe section and Tasha made her way there. She found the shoes, and a gorgeous pair of red heels she knew she had to get for herself. They were really comfortable. As she was walking out she noticed a man walking up to her daughter, who was now shopping in the front of the store. As he neared she recognized him as her daughter’s boyfriend. She hit behind the rack of shoes, so that she could see them without them noticing that she was watching and allowed them some time alone.

They didn’t kiss or anything that would be considered a public display of affection. Given the things her daughter had told her about the ‘rules’ and such, they were probably used to keeping their relationship in private. But they certainly weren’t standing that far apart, and she could tell they cared for each other. It was in the way they stood, and the way they were looking at each other.

She could still remember her and her husband being like that. Just comfortable in one another’s presence. She missed that. She picked up her shoe boxes and went to greet Tony.

“I found the best shoes,” she stated to announce herself as she got closer. Her daughter moved a step back, allowing more room between herself and Tony, but he didn’t move at all, just giving Tasha a grin that had she been a little younger she might have fought her daughter for. Tasha said nothing but couldn’t hide a smile at their behavior.

~*~

When they arrived at the airport, Ben was waiting with an expression on his face that he wished he had never spoken a word about the new development in his cousin’s life. Nick almost felt sorry for his nephew. Ben had one of those personalities that were hard to find in the world. He was easy going, and almost always honest. He was a good boy, and one of Nick’s favorites amongst his nieces and nephews.

“Tony said he’d met us for dinner. He has to deal with a few things at work today. Kate and her mother will be joining us as well, so you’ll get to met her.”

“Good. It is always a good way to see a person by meeting their families.” Nick didn’t say anything to his father’s comment, but he shared a glance with his sister. If someone judged their children by their family, the family would never be allowed anywhere.

Especially if they knew the hijinks that he and Liv got up to when they were teenagers.

Ben drove them to a local hotel, and Nick was quite happy to step into his room. His father had a room down the hall, and Olivia was going to stay at the house with Ben and Amy. They were going to go through the stuff there and see what they could do about it. Apparently Tony finally wanted to make use of it as something besides a place to put his relatives when they visited the capital.

He sighed and looked out the water at the busy streets below. He was more and more sure that he should have just stayed home.

* * *

 

“It will be nice to meet your parents, Anthony,” Tasha stated as she got into the car. She had given them directions to the house she was staying at and Kate and Tony had come around to pick her up around 7 for dinner with Tony’s family. Tony looked like he was walking on Death row and Kate was holding his hand looking only slightly less nervous.

“I hope you still feel that way afterwards,” Tony stated. “My family can be overpowering sometimes.”

“I am the mother of six children. Trust me, I can handle overpowering.” She squeezed his shoulder before buckling in her seat in the back. “Where are we going?”

“This Italian place a few miles outside of town called Angelo’s. Kate and I had reservations for tonight anyway, and luckily I didn’t cancel so I just called ahead and let them know the number had increased to eight. “

“They make the best bruschetta, Mom,” Kate said turning her head to see her mother better. “I’ve tried to get them to give me the recipe to send to you, but they claim is a family secret.”

“Most of the best recipes are.” They continued to talk about the restaurant and some of the sites along the way that Kate pointed out till they reached their destination. Tony remained silent most of the time, but as they got nearer, he had started to relax. He had even started to smile when Kate retold a funny story about a case where Timothy had gotten pushed into a pool at a park they passed.

They got out of the car, and walked toward the entrance. Apparently the DiNozzos had already arrived and were settled so the host showed them to a small room in the back that had been provided for the family. She saw three men of various ages, as well as a middle aged woman and a younger woman, perhaps in her mid to late twenties.

The three men stood as they entered. The eldest she assumed was Anthony DiNozzo, Tony’s grandfather. Like his grandson (and his son, as she assumed the middle aged man to be) he still had good looks and must have been a heartbreaker in his heyday. She smiled as he introduced himself and his daughter Olivia. Next to introduce himself was Benito (who preferred to be called Ben) and his wife Amy. Finally, she was introduced to Nicholas DiNozzo.

“Natasha Todd,” she stated holding out her hand. He took it with a smile and shook it.

“Nick DiNozzo. It is a pleasure to meet you Natasha.” She smiled back.

“Likewise, and its Tasha.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And more reasons why the DiNozzo clan is a little messed up.

The first part of the dinner had been awkward and quiet.  The food was delicious as always, but the only ones who talked were Ben and the four women at the table.  Nick looked like he wanted to be anywhere but and Tony reflected that look.  Anthony the First sat and watched her all evening.  It was slightly unnerving.  But Tony would occasionally give her a smile which reminded her why she was here.  This was her family too now, though her child if nothing else.  She would have to learn to get used to this sort of attention.

Things got relieved when the meals were finished and the dancing floor in the middle of the restaurant was opened.  Anthony ordered his male descendents to take the ladies dancing while he had a chat with ‘Caitlin.’ Which was where they were now. She could barely see Tony, but knew he was watching the table while dancing with his Aunt Liv. Her mother was dancing with Tony’s Dad, probably planning some kind of evil plan.  Her mother was good at that, and getting people to help her.

“Young Lady, how long have you known my grandson?”

“Almost two years, sir.”

“No need to call me sir, Caitlin.  As you are now part of this family, you may call me Papa like my grandchildren do.”  She didn’t reply.  She wasn’t sure she was comfortable enough with this man to refer to him as something as familiar as Papa.

“Now the reason I asked to talk to you alone is I wanted to see who it was my grandson was marrying.”

“We aren’t.”

“Are not, what dear?”

“Getting married. We haven’t even discussed it really.  We are just taking one step at a time right now.”

“Your steps are certainly not in order.”

“No.  This was…. not expected.”

“Rarely is.  So you have chosen not to marry because?”

“I don’t think we are ready for such a commitment.”

“Yet you’re ready for a commitment to a child.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready or not, to be honest.” There was no reason to lie to Tony’s grandfather. “But I really have no choice on that particular matter.  I just have to believe I am.”

“Good.”  Kate blinked.  “No one should think they are ready for parenthood before they are a parent.  Because as soon as you hold that child you will know you are fully unequipped to be a parent. And then you learn.  And you try your best and hope your children turn out to be good upstanding adults.”

There was silence for a moment while the two observed each other.

“Do you love my grandson?”

“Yes, very much so.” And it was the truth, even though she had only realized that in the last few weeks. 

“And what exactly do you think you need to be married?”

“Love is certainly a major contributing factor, but both parties need to be ready to commit to each other.  Marriage is not a choice that should be made at a whim.”

“Hmm. Interesting.  So you don’t believe that someone who meets someone and marries them three days later can have a long and successful marriage?”

“No, I suppose not.  You have to have a lot of trust to get married.”  Anthony sat up in his seat.

“Caitlin, do you not trust my grandson to be faithful to you?”  Kate was stunned by the question.  Did she trust Tony to be faithful?   She had this image in her head of her own creation of what she thought Tony to be.  And one of the elements was his constant flirting with other woman.  Not that he has recently, but that could have been more from lack of opportunity then no desire to do so.

Truth be told, she and Tony had never really discussed marriage.  At least not recently. A passing comment didn’t count.  And the last time they had a serious talk; Tony thought there was no merit to it.  Did she want to marry a man who didn’t believe in marriage to start with? 

She knew Tony had his own lines and standards, and one of them was that he wouldn’t cheat.  So could she trust Tony to be faithful?  Yes, at least physically.  She wasn’t so sure emotionally.

She looked out at the dance floor and saw Liv happily chatting Tony’s ears off while Tony looked half amused and half wanting to get away.   He glanced her way and gave her a smile.  And suddenly she knew her answer.

“No, I trust him.  I’m just not sure either of us is ready.”

“My wife and I met three days before we got married.”  Anthony began.  “We were married at the New York Court house with only my mother and her brother as witnesses.   We were married for sixty years before her death.  I have no desire to marry again.”  He paused.

“Then there was my son.  Nicholas married young to a woman he had dated for three years before their marriage.  He was 23 when he married Mary.  They had met at college.  That was Mary’s sole reason for going.  I never understood that reasoning, but that was the way it was for some people during that time.  Nick loved her, there was no doubt.  And they had Alex.”

“I wasn’t aware Tony had a brother.”

“I wouldn’t think so.  But I will get to that.  His name was Alessandro Michael DiNozzo.  He was born in 1969, three years before Tony.  Mary had trouble having children.  It took her four years to have Alex.  So Alex was her whole world.  She was ecstatic when Tony was born, but Alex was still her special one.  And right before Tony was a year old, Alex died.”  Kate’s eyes widened.  Tony never told her any of this.   She wondered if Gibbs knew any of this.

“Mary was bereft.  She couldn’t handle the loss.  She took everything that was of Alex and packed it away.  She wanted it thrown away, but Nick managed to get a hold of it and store it. Alex was not to be talked about.  It was like he never existed.  She started to pretend that Tony was her elder son.  Started saying how different he was acting.   She turned to alcohol thinking that would help and eventually drank herself out of being healthy. She died of heart failure, similar to Alex.”  Anthony wasn’t looking at her anymore; she could tell he was remembering.  There was an amount of sorrow in the man’s eyes. 

“Nick didn’t fare much better.  But he was a better parent to Tony I think.  Tony was Tony, not Alex on repeat.   He tried being there for Mary, but she couldn’t be there for him.  By the time Mary died, so had their marriage.  It didn’t take him long to remarry.  And he kept marrying just to be married.  My son does not do well on his own.” He turned and focused on her.

“So what I need to know, Caitlin, is what kind of woman is going to stand alongside my grandson.  I hope you never go through what Nick and Mary had to go through, but I want to know you are the kind of women who would help Tony too.”

Kate was by this time crying herself.  So this was what all this was about.  However, that was an easier question to answer.  She and Tony had already been there for each other.  She had been kidnapped twice and nearly killed by Ari and Tony had been there to make sure she was ok.  He saved her life a couple of times actually.  And she couldn’t make herself move from his side when he had the plague.

“I can guarantee you that Tony and I will try our best to get through things together.”  The music had ended and the others returned to see Kate crying.  Liv, Tasha and Tony all had concerned looks on her face, while Nick, Ben and Amy looked at Anthony wondering what he had done to make Kate cry.

“I’m fine guys.  Just the hormone’s starting to kick in,” she lied with a smile after the third are you ok came her way.  Tasha seemed to accept that after a moment of watching her daughter, and Liv didn’t know her well enough to tell she was lying.  Only Tony seemed to catch the fact that she wasn’t completely truthful.  But she didn’t want to be the one to explain to Tony about his brother and why his mother had been the way she had been.

It seemed they had more in common when it came to their families.  Her father had gone through depression as well.  Neither Mary nor Richard Todd had been able to get help or hadn’t wanted it and both had died due to that depression.  But it wasn’t a happy topic to think about and she didn’t want to start crying because of her father so she thought about happy things.

The baby for example. This appeared to be a common thought, because just as she was thinking that, Aunt Liv brought it up.

“So have you thought of any names for the baby?”

“Cameron,” they both said at the same and then laughed.

“Really, we were just joking about it the other day, so it probably won’t be Cameron.  We haven’t really had the time recently to think about it.  We don’t even know the gender yet,” Tony explained.

“My friend Abby has already put in a request for Abigail if it’s a girl.”

“That is a pretty name,” Aunt Liv said, with a nod from Amy.  “There are plenty of family names as well.  If I had a girl I was thinking of naming her Julia or Romana.  George didn’t like Romana though.  Said it sounded like I was watching too much science fiction.  It’s a character on Doctor Who.  It didn’t matter in the end because it turned out to be a boy,” she said as she smiled at her son who simply rolled his eyes.

“So instead you named me after a historical figure.”

“It was your father’s idea.  He figured someone should give the name a good reputation.”

“I like the name Benito,” Tasha said with a wink towards Ben.  “Very masculine.”

“Thank you,” Aunt Liv answered, not realizing the hidden meaning behind Tasha’s words. Neither did Anthony as he was preoccupied ordering dessert for the clan.  The others however caught on.  Tony and Amy were trying their best not to laugh; Nick was trying to breathe after nearly breathing in his glass of water but looked amused, and Kate was staring at her mother in horror.  “What names did you use for your children?” Liv continued.

“Well, my eldest is Mitchell, and then there was Adam followed by the girls, Grace and Caitlyn.”  She spared a look for her daughter.   “Then my youngest, the twins Calleigh and Jackson.”

“Calleigh is a beautiful name.”

“Thank you.”  At this time the waiters brought forth a serving of dessert, an assortment of mini amaretto cheesecake bites and mini cannoli.   Everyone took one look at the delicious desert and dug in.    It made Kate wonder what informal family dinners were like.   She smiled at the little movie in her head, and refocused on the present.  Tony turned to her and asked her to dance, hearing one of his favorite classic songs starting to be played by the band.

Kate was glad for the question for two reasons.  One, the last time she and Tony had danced she really wouldn’t call that dancing and they were undercover.  Second, she needed a break from the on slot of questions that she had no answer to as of yet.  And watching her mother flirt with Ben and to an extent Nick was something she rather not see.

She sighed as she closed her eyes and let Tony led her around the dance floor.  The tune was slow and was one of those old melodies from the thirties.  She had heard it one time when she had arrived to pick him up and he had the CD player going.  Tony’s music tastes were eclectic, but she knew he had a soft spot for old movie tunes and standards sung by the greats like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

“Feeling ok?”  Tony asks his mouth next to her ear.  “You looked like you needed some fresh air or something over there.”   She stands up straighter, not leaning in so much so she can look up at him without craning her neck too much.

“My mom and the names were getting a little much.   It made me realize how little I’m actually thinking about the baby, and yet it seems like all I _am_ thinking about is this baby.”

“Yeah, I understand that.   Aunt Liv started to go on about decorating the baby’s room and using special paint, and not letting you do it and we don’t even have a room chosen for the baby yet.  All we have figured out is where we are going to live.” He pulled her back in, moving his arms from the traditional pose to being around her waist, hugging her to him.  She wound her hands around his waist and leaned her head on his shoulder, continuing to dance slowly.  “You still want to live in the house, right?”

“I think it’s the best option.  And the house is beautiful.  Even if we weren’t together, I’d probably ask to buy it off you.”

“I never really thought about living there till you seemed to want to.  I get more into it as I think about it though.  My lease is up in a month or so.  I was just going to renew it, but I guess I can just let it phase out now.”

“I never quite understood why you still rented that apartment.  Especially after living there four years.”

“Two.  I moved in about a month before I met you.  Before that I was living at the house.  Ben was staying there all the time then, going to college at Georgetown. “

“With that furniture?”

“Even with the furniture. The only room I made my own was the downstairs game room.” 

“So you moved away from the house and into an apartment. “

“Which promptly had an electricity problem and I had to stay with Gibbs for a few weeks.” She remembered Gibbs mentioning something about Tony staying with him for awhile when they dealt with Susanna.  One of the moments of her career that would be seared into her memory.

She was about to replay when she felt Tony stop.  She moved so she could look up at him and noticed him watching the table.  Turning she saw Nick storm away from the table, and a few seconds later her mother leaving.  After exchanging one look with Tony, they both went rushing back to the table.

“You just missed it,” Ben said with a tone of voice that said he wished he had too.   “Gramps decided to discuss Aunt Mary again and Uncle Nick blew a gasket.”

“Not that I blame him,” Aunt Liv added with a glare at his father.  “Dad, you don’t have to be so damn insensitive about these things.”  She turned to look at Kate.  “Your mother followed him, figuring since she had a similar situation that she could help him.”

“Similar situation?”

“A spouse with depression. She didn’t go into much detail though.  Gramps thought it would be ok to pick on Aunt Mary and how she couldn’t overcome it.”  Anthony did not look in the least repentant.

“What did you say?”  Tony asked with a pointed look.

“Just that Mary should have realized she had another child and not let her life fall apart at the loss of her first.”  Everyone turned and looked at Anthony.  Ben and Amy had turned because they hadn’t known about Alex either, and Aunt Liv because she knew that Nick hadn’t told anyone. “It’s been over thirty years since Alex died.  It’s time the secret was out of the bag.”

“There are better ways of telling people that, Dad.”  Kate looked at Tony who didn’t appear to be reacting to anything.  This told her he was probably trying to assimilate this new knowledge with what he knew.

“I’m going to find Dad.”  Kate nodded and let him go; knowing that this was a conversation between Father and son she did not need to attend.  Instead she turned to Anthony the first, and gave him the patented Todd glare.

“Was that completely necessary?”

“I believe so, yes.  It was time he learned about his brother. “

“That wasn’t what I was referring to, although you should have waited till his father told him.  Just putting out there like that wasn’t exactly nice.”

“I needed to do something.”  The rest of the family was watching as Kate stood up to the paterfamilias.  Liv was looking on with a half smile, almost proud to see someone do it. Ben and Amy were just waiting to see what would happen.

“Your son and grandson have enough problems without you getting involved.  Interviewing me is one thing.  That’s being family.  But you do not need to attack your son about his wife.  She was depressed.  Not weak, not a bad mother.  She had a problem, one that wasn’t helped back then.”  It had been building up in her since he had called Mary a weak woman for letting her depression take over her life.  Having dealt with family members with depression, she knew that sometimes there was no choice unless there was help.  And in the seventies, she doubted Mary had the help.

“You don’t know the situation.”

“No, but I do know what it does to a person.  I have watched two people suffer from depression.  One didn’t have the help he needed and ended up dead and the other is my brother who luckily is getting the help he needs.” For a few seconds they kept looking at each other, neither wanting to show any backing down in this argument.  However, the argument was interrupted by Tony and his father returning to the table, followed by Tasha.    It was clear at this point that the dinner was over.    Goodbyes were quickly said and the group departed, with the waiters looking on with relief.  Kate wondered if she and Tony would be allowed back after that fight.

After dropping her mother off, the two of them drive to Tony’s apartment.  She isn’t sure when they made that decision, but that is where they went.  Tony is silent most of the way home, and even as they walk up the stairs (the elevators are out again) to his third floor apartment and go inside, nothing is said.

She closes the door behind her and tosses the keys into the glass bowl on a stand by the door.  Next to the bowl is an old fashioned tin box.  It holds Tony and Kate’s backlogged mail from the couple days out in the country.  She is pretty sure most of it is junk mail, trying to get one of them to sign up for a credit card, or renew their car warranty.  She briefly checks the answering machine, noticing it is blinking the number 2 but doesn’t listen to the messages.  She needs to talk Tony into getting voice mail. 

The door had opened into a hallway that was only a few inches larger than the radius of the door.  Behind the door led to the bathroom and the master bedroom.  The living room was on the other side, and the kitchen beyond the wall.  The guest bedroom sat on the other end of the living room.

Somehow she had always expected that Tony would have had a bigger place, but when she first came over she had known it had fit Tony.  It had a warm feel to it, and had a sense of the 1950s, which she thinks the building was built.  The old fashioned design was off put by the modern technology scattered about the house.  A 52” LCD Screen filled one wall of the living room, with a large book case on either side, filled to the brim with DVDs.  Across from it was a large comfortable couch.  A coffee table stood in between and beneath the large window to the left was a long side table with a CD player that had Cassette and Record playing capabilities.  His CD and Record collections were shelved below. 

Tony tore off his tie as he entered the apartment, throwing it over the phone dock which was missing its phone and proceeded to flop down on the couch, his legs still over the side.  She picked up his tie and hung up her jacket in the closet.

She turned around to see Tony hadn’t moved, just put his arm over his head, as if he was hiding his eyes from the light.  With only the low kitchen light on you could barely see around the apartment.

She walked past him and down the hallway to the bedroom and grabbed a set of PJs.  She tossed the bottoms at Tony and took the top for herself.  Since they usually stayed at her apartment she had failed to bring her normal sleep clothes with her.

She walked into the bathroom and started a shower, knowing that he walked in halfway through it.  It didn’t bother her anymore.  He did that before they were together and it certainly shouldn’t bother them now that they were.

“Ben told me you told my Grandfather off.”  She stopped shampooing her hair for a second.

“He needed it.”

“Yeah, he did.  Thanks.”  It wasn’t often Tony said thanks.  More often than Gibbs, but still not often. She rinsed her hair and turned the shower off.  She grabbed the towel Tony handed her and wrapped it around her body before she moved the curtain and stepped out, picking up another towel for her hair.

“Are you ok?”  She asked.  She knew tonight had been more emotionally tiring for him then for her.  Sure, she had been grilled about her intentions towards Tony, but he had found out that he had an older brother.

“Yeah. It’s going to take some time to actually accept that I’m not an only child, but it eventually will happen. I think your mom really helped Dad.”  He paused.  “We actually got along tonight, which was different.  He’s been seeing a therapist apparently to get over some of his issues.  Stopped drinking, although he traded that in for smoking. Never realized he had problems like he does.”

“I don’t think we ever expect it.”  She thought back to her own father.  She had been ten when he had killed himself.  She hadn’t been kidding when she had told Gibbs that suicide tore a Catholic family apart.  She never knew how he had done it, only their mother and Mitch who had been 14 at the time knew.   And Tasha wouldn’t talk about it.

She quickly dried herself off as Tony prepared to take his own shower and put on the button down shirt.    She left him to it, and walked out to look over Tony’s DVD collection.  She figured it would help him go to sleep if they watched something familiar and comforting.  She smiled as she found the perfect movie.

Apparently after Gitmo, Tony had decided to look up Alan Ladd and now there was a small collection of his films on Tony’s bookshelves.   She took the DVD out, an old Film Noire classic called “This Gun for Hire” which she knew Tony would love and padded back into the bedroom. 

Tony had a smaller widescreen hooked up above the larger dresser and across from the bed.  There was a taller matching dresser that stood off to the side with Tony’s clothes, and the bottom drawers of this one contained clothes too.  But the top drawer on both sides contained Tony’s movie stuff.  Various popcorn mixes and assorted toppings and theater candy. Anything that didn’t have to be refrigerated that one would need for a Movie marathon was located there.  

She put the movie in and the menu music began to play just as Tony was getting out of the bathroom, drying his hair.  He doesn’t notice her at first, so she gets an uninterrupted view of a half-naked Tony before he makes any comments.  Although when he does notice her, she just gets one of those grins that used to make her roll her eyes but over time had started to melt her insides a tad.  He walked over and flopped onto bed.  She raised an eyebrow.

“Do you ever just sit anywhere, Tony?”

“Nope. What’s the fun in that?”  He winks at her and she rolls her eyes and she knows he’ll be ok.   It’s funny that they use arguing as a way to figure out if the others ok.  But it’s one of their quirks as a couple and she wouldn’t change it for anything.

“One of these days you’re going to break something.”  They both get under the covers, and she hands him the remote, knowing as tired as she is, she’ll be asleep before ten minutes of the movie have passed.   They settle in, and he starts the movie, and as she drifts off she can hear the train and two people talking about peppermints.  The last thing she remembers is Tony leaning over and kissing her check and whispering goodnight.

 


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Kate have a lazy morning in and make some decisive decisions.

Chapter 10:

Kate awoke to find herself fully wrapped up in Tony.  Sometime during the night, he had pulled her close.  His right arm lay across her holding her to him, and his right leg was laying on her right.  There was no way she could move without waking him.   But she had to go to the bathroom, so slowly she moved herself out of Tony’s embrace, against the odds succeeding in not waking him up.

When she returned, Tony was on his stomach, taking up most of the bed. The blanket lay around his waist, leaving his back bare.  She smiled at the sight, and continued on into the living room, then the kitchen to see about making some breakfast.  They had the morning off, which was nice.  Then in the afternoon they had packing for the two nights and one day they’d be spending in Pennsylvania for the funeral, and her appointment with Dr. Frances to go to.

She spotted the mixings for French toast and got them out.  She mixed together the egg mixture and put it away so that whenever Tony woke up she could make the toast.

She decided to explore Tony’s apartment while she waited for him to wake up.  The last couple of times she had been here, they hadn’t been there long enough for her to take a closer look.  Usually just long enough for him to grab something and go.  They usually went to her place.

The place looked different in the daylight.  She moved to turn off the light that she had turned on the night before to light their way made her way to the answering machine, noticing once again that there were a couple messages on there.

_Friday, May 26.  2:05 pm_

_Hey Tony, Its’ Steve. The guys are getting together for a round of pool at O’Malley’s and wondered if you wanted to go.   Feel free to bring that girl of yours.  We all want to meet the woman who’s tamed one of the last bachelors of the group._

_Oh, and bring Kate.  I wouldn’t mind spending more time with her.”_

 Kate raised an eyebrow.  So Tony didn’t share all with his Frat buddies.  They apparently knew enough that he was seeing someone and had been for over his last long term record.   But they didn’t know her name.  Otherwise Steve would have known they were one in the same.

Oh, that was going to be awkward.  “Hey, Steve. I’m dating your ex-girlfriend and we are having a baby together.”  She couldn’t have normal situations could she?

_Saturday, May 27, 7:13 pm_

_Hey, Sweetheart!  I guess you must be feeling better, seeing as you aren’t answering the phone.  Out and about I guess.  Call me back.  Bye._

Kate wondered at that one.  The tone seemed familiar, and it didn’t sound like the type of voice one of Tony’s girlfriends would have.  More…. young auntish.

She was about to go further into the living room when two arms wrapped themselves around her.  Tony kissed her next, murmuring a good morning.

“How long have you been up?”

“Not long,” she answered, turning around to face him.   “Your friends want to go to O’Malley’s and have demanded that you bring me and me,” she teased.

“I heard,” he said with a smile, his voice still sleepy.  “I woke up to Steve’s voice. Would have preferred yours.” He leaned his head against hers, closing his eyes.  Sleepy Tony was slightly amusing to be with.

“I bet.  Who’s the second message from.”

“Shelly.  My dad’s ex wife.  Number three as a matter of fact.”

“How many did he have?”

“Twice as many as Gibbs.”

“Wow. “

“There was my Mom, Laura, Leslie, Shelly, Morgan, Meredith and Frances.  The last one was two years ago.”

“And that’s in twenty years?  I bet that made your grandfather happy.”

“Oh, yes.  Spectacularly. Grandpa boycotted the last four. “

“So Shelly still talks to you?”

“Yep. She’s about the only one I felt comfortable with as a Step mom.  I call her mom occasionally.  She’s the one who keeps going after me to get married.”

She groaned.  After having her mother and Tony’s grandfather after her to marry Tony, the last thing she needed was another person to try and get her to get married.

Tony had a pondering look on his face.

“Why not?  Why not get married?”

“Oh, Tony, please tell me you aren’t doing this because everyone has been pushing for it.”

“Nope. Not that.  Although I have to admit they got me thinking.  Just why not get married?”

“Besides the fact that we have only been dating for maybe 2 months, and you’ve never been exactly a promoter of the monogamous married life, Tony.”

“Well, thoughts changed and I always do monogamous.  I just don’t do long term, usually.”

“It usually doesn’t become a question of monogamy till its long term.  And your thoughts on marriage have changed?”

“Well, think about it.  We are practically acting married already.  Why not just get the paperwork done?”

“That’s a great look on marriage Tony.  It’s more than just paperwork.” There went her morning.  She didn’t want Tony to have a ‘might as well’ marriage.  She always wanted one of those “We got married because we want to announce to everyone we love each other” marriages.  Where signing the certificate was not about the relationship, but sharing it with everyone.

Her mother had once told her getting married was about the same as shouting from a rooftop that you love someone.  And if you weren’t willing to do that (pardoning some phobias), then you shouldn’t get married.

She walked away to go get the stuff out for breakfast.

“That’s not what this is,” he responded softly.  She didn’t turn around, instead focusing on finding the bread.  “There are a couple reasons for it.”

“And they are?”  She started to dunk

“So far in the two years we have known each other, we have pretty much faced about every hurdle a married couple could, we love each other, we know each other better than most couples. “

“Do we really?”  At this she turned around.  “I didn’t even know your family.”

“That’s because I hardly think of them myself.” He paused.  “Wait here.”  He went back into the bedroom, and she turned back to her French toast.  She managed to finish a batch by the time be got back and had it plated and setting on the counter between the kitchen and the living room.    Another set was frying in the pan, almost ready to be plated themselves.

She turned to put the plate on counter and had almost sat down across from Tony when she noticed a box.  A small box. One that was black and had the exact shape of a ring box. The ring box was familiar too.  During a case a few months ago, not too long after Tony’s “I know you” comment, they had walked into a jewelry store.  The clerk had been the only witness to a murder of a sailor.  However, after the interview was done and they had found out the witness wasn’t really a witness they had looked around.  The store’s logo was embossed in gold on the top of the box.

She slowly took the box and opened it to find a small gold ring, almost reddish gold in appearance. It was smooth and had a Celtic design leading up to the encased diamond.  It was an engagement ring she had seen and had mentioned in passing how much she had loved it.  Beyond being pretty, the fact the diamond was encased instead of sitting on top of the ring meant she could wear it under her gloves with a less chance of them ripping. 

And Tony had bought it.  And given that he brought it out now said something.

It said he had put thought into this.  That this wasn’t a rush decision in the aftermath of having her one sick day away from being dead.  Or the fact that she was the mother his child. 

Although why would he buy her an engagement ring when they weren’t even together back then. They were just tittering then, half in the “just friends” category, half in the “Be glad there are other people here or I’d tear your clothes off’ territory.  

Maybe Tony had a point.  They did not have a conventional relationship.  They hadn’t met in a bar and hooked up, or at a friend’s party.  They had met during a murder investigation.  Both of them had faced death several times, mostly together.  They had spent many nights together in various stakeouts and late night investigations. 

Ducky had mentioned sexual tension once when talking about their relationship.  Said it sounded like they needed marriage counseling.   Back then she had been horrified at the thought of someone seeing them as a married couple.   And Ducky hadn’t been the first one.  Even Gibbs said their fighting sounded like a married couple.

“Ok.” She said.  She was surprised she didn’t fight it more, but somehow knowing that Tony had been planning this for awhile had relived her worries that he was doing it because everyone wanted it but him.  If anyone asked, she could just say hormones.  If she was going to suffer with fluctuations, she should be able to use that excuse if she wanted to, even if the hormones hadn’t really done much so far.

“Wow that was quick.”  Tony said with a smile.

“Shut up and eat your breakfast,” she said with a smile of her own.   She took the ring and put it on, surprised when it was an exact fit.  Then realized she shouldn’t be surprised.  Tony knew a bit too much about her sometimes.

If they were a normal couple, he would have taken her out to dinner, asked her in some fantastic way.  Tony could be romantic if he wanted to be, and he had watched enough movie proposals to know a few good ones.  But they weren’t a normal couple.  They were just Kate & Tony.

“We shouldn’t tell our parent’s.” Tony said after finishing a bite of the toast.  “They’ll just start asking when the date is,” he was quick to add when he saw her face.

One step at a time. 

 

* * *

 

They finished eating in silence and then Tony went off to get dressed.  She was still dressed in his clothes but he didn’t mind.   When he left the room she went and got her cell phone.  He was right about not telling their parents.  Her mother for one would start calling the local churches to see how soon they could plan a wedding.

Her mother loved weddings, particularly those of her children.

But he had not said anything about telling Abby and the gang.  She bet Gibbs already knew.  Probably McGee too. She picked up her phone and put it on camera mode and shot a picture of the ring and sent it to Abby.

It was very long at all before her phone was ringing and ABBS came up on the screen.  She answered it and said hello, and moved it away from her head quick enough to avoid losing an eardrum to Abby’s squealing.

“I knew he’d ask you!!   Didn’t I, McGee!” She heard a noise in the background and assumed it was McGee agreeing that Abby did in fact know that Tony was going to propose.  “So how did he do it?  Down on one knee?”

“With an argument and over a plate of French toast.”

“Oh.  Well, that’s certainly you two.  Well, the arguing.  The French toast element is new.”

“I made it this morning…my mom’s personal recipe.”

“Speaking of mothers how was the DiNozzo family dinner last night?”

“Think My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets the psych ward.”

“Really?”

“Let’s see, I was being vetted out to be the next mother of the DiNozzo family line by Grandpa D, also known as Anthony,” she started.

“So Tony’s a second?  Cool.”

“Yeah. Then we had my mother flirting with Tony’s cousin, and his dad and grandfather getting into a fight about the fact that Tony’s mom was depressed and Anthony saw it more of a weakness.  Oh, and then he decided to announce to Tony that he had a brother who died before he was born.”  By this time Tony had come back and she mouthed Abby to him and he nodded.   He put the dishes into the dishwasher as she continued to talk.

“Tony has a brother!”

“Yep. Not the best time for that little bit of news.”

“Wow.”

“Yep.”

“Hey, Kate, Can I talk to Tony a little?”

“Sure, hold on.”  She motioned for Tony and handed over her cell phone.

“Abbs!” He said as he started to walk away. 

He was only gone a few minutes when Kate just started to laugh because the last week was had been all over the place.  It had only been four days since Becca died and in those four days, her boyfriend had found he was going to be a father, they had gotten engaged, her mother and his family had decended upon them, and they caught and killed Ari Haswari.

Whenever she was older, and had to retire from NCIS she was going to write a book.  Her life was too crazy not to put into print.  Maybe she’d let McGee do it, he certainly liked to write.

She had finished her random laughing fit by the time Tony came back.  He tosses her to phone and flops on the couch, causing her to roll her eyes.   He responds by tugging on her arm to bring her closer, hugging her close to him.

“Abby seemed flabbergasted that I have never seen When Harry Met Sally.”  She sat up.

“Do I want to know how that came up in conversation?”

“Abby said she had just watched it and it reminded her of us.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

“I own it, mostly due to Amy, but I’ve never watched it either.  But Abby insists we watch it.  McGee told me it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.”

“McGee’s seen it?”

“McGee reads Redbook and dates Abby.  Either he did it because he wanted to ‘know woman’ or Abby made him.”

“The question is do _we_ do as Abby says?”

“Why not.” He let her go get the movie and put it on in the living room.  After it was in she grabbed the remote, and the two settled down to watch.  Or not watch, because as much as Abby was their friend, they had other activities they’d rather be doing.

By the time Sally was talking about Sheldon, Kate could care less.

 

* * *

 

 “I don’t think this is a good idea.  Couldn’t we just fly to Pittsburgh International?”

“It costs several hundred dollars for a round trip ticket that far, and it’s within driving distance.”  Kate looked over at her bo…fiancé as he finished carrying the suitcase they were sharing for the overnight trip to the door. Gibbs and the Director were supposed to pick them up in the next couple of minutes and Tony was spending the time complaining about being in a car with Gibbs driving.  Not that she was overly looking forward to six hours.  Or four the way Gibbs drove.  If they were lucky, the director would insist on driving.  Or Kate could drive.  Tony drove a little fast himself.

She found it kind of interesting that Tony only got car sick when Gibbs was driving and he wasn’t in the front.  Well, mostly when Gibbs was driving.  Kate had already made sure there was Dramamine in her purse.  Tony usually wasn’t too bad, but she had seen it happen, so it was better to be prepared.

She went back to looking at what else she had packed in her bag.  Hand sanitizer, her cell phone, her keys, her general make-up, wallet, the Dramamine and the pictures they had gotten at the doctor’s appointment.

That had been an interesting experience.  She was definitely not taking her mother with her to another one.  As much as she loved her mother, having to deal with her mother trying to give her advice while they sat in the waiting room and trying to do the ultrasound technician’s job later on was just too much.  She was just glad that Tony had decided to not come to the first appointment.   He had to go see his father before Anthony and Nick went back to New York.  

She could only deal with one of them at a time.  But Tony had promised to go to the next one.  Due to the fact that Kate had been exposed to both the plague, and a heavy duty antibiotic, Jessica had decided to see her more often.  Every two weeks instead of every month, particularly as Kate’s due date was closer.  They had December 12th as the due date and sonogram pictures. 

The baby was larger than she expected, given how little she was showing, but the doctor had assured her that within the next week or so she’d start showing more.   Since it was her first pregnancy it would take longer to show then it would be whenever she had more children. 

Her mother had made a noise when she saw the baby that previously Kate thought only Abby could make.  Needless to say, but Natasha Todd was excited about her grandbaby!

It made it more real.  Even three weeks ago, when they had first done an ultrasound she hadn’t really felt like a soon-to-be mother. Part of it was shock; another half of her was too preoccupied with her boyfriend dying.  Another part of her started to notice the symptoms and wondered how she could not have known.

But now she had a small black and white photo of her baby.  She started to grin as she looked at it.  This wasn’t part of her plan in life, it wasn’t close.  But oddly she was happy.  It almost felt…right for this to happen when it did.

Tony walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her as he looked down at the photograph himself.

“I think he has your nose.”

“ _She_ does not have that big of a nose to tell.  What made you assume it was a boy?  It’s too early to tell.”

“It was just a statement and I just got a hunch.”

“Because Cameron’s the only name you’ve come up with yet?”

“Hey, Cameron can be a girl’s name too!”

“I know.  But it’s more often a boy’s name.”  Tony was about to reply when there was a knock on the door.  Tony frowned and walked to the door, opening it to find a hyper (as usual) Abby and a less-hyper (as usual) McGee.  Abby pushed past Tony and ran to Kate. She could hear McGee in the background explaining why Gibbs and the Director were not there.

“Ok, I need to see the ring in person!”  Kate held out her hand.  She had just put the ring back on a few minutes ago, having taken it off while she was with her mother.  It was amusing listening to her mother list the reasons why she should get married all the while knowing she _was._  That and it was nice to be able to keep a secret from her mother.  Tasha Todd had a lie-detector almost as good as Gibbs.  But she managed to keep this one.

But as Abby went to grab the hand, she noticed the baby pictures.   And for the third time that day she heard the sound that only Abby and her mother could make.  McGee and Tony held back, clearly wary of this overly excited version of Abby.

Kate on the other hand let the other woman’s enthusiasm sink in. Might as well get used to it. They had a six-hour drive ahead of them.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Becca's funeral and the memories they have of them all.

The trip up to Pittsburgh was an eventful one. Abby spent most of the way talking about what she was planning to do as an honorary aunt.  McGee fell asleep in the front seat, and Tony kept silent, every once and awhile sharing an amused glance with Kate through the mirror.  They stopped once for dinner once they crossed the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, but for the most part it was a continuous trip.

 Once they got there, they made their way to the hotel that Jenny (she insisted that they call her that when off duty, again) had arranged for them for the two nights they would be staying.  The others were already there and had chosen their rooms.

It doesn’t surprise her when there are only four rooms instead of eight. It was a small hotel with only five rooms per floor, and the last room was taken by someone else. Ducky and Palmer had decided to share a double room that is attached to Gibbs’ room, which apparently he is sharing with the Jenny which does surprise her.   She thinks that Gibbs and Jenny had assumed that Abby and she would share a room while Tony and McGee would take the other room, but they also didn’t seem so surprised when it turns out that Abby and McGee go into one together.  She’s pretty sure however they will use the separate beds.  McGee’s too much of a gentlemen and he’s also not a fool to let himself be used by Abby when she doesn’t return the feelings it’s obvious to everyone he has.

Kate goes in the remaining room, finding it a single, instead of the double she anticipated.  She hears Gibbs and Tony talking in the hallway, but not what they are saying as she flops down on the bed and closes her eyes.

She doesn’t open them when minutes later she hears Tony’s soft footsteps as he walked across the room and sat down on the bed beside her.

“The Director knows we are together.  Gibbs let it slip the other day.  Or at least he let it slip that he wasn’t the one involved with you and the Director then assumed me.”

“Why would she assume Gibbs?”

“Apparently she took that scene at the hospital after you got shot as either we were a _very_ close team or one of us was involved with you.  She managed to weed out of Gibbs the fact that it wasn’t him and she then switched to me, having seen how we interact.”

“Did she say anything about it?”  There was no official rule about interoffice dating, but she knew some still frowned on it, and it could affect how she was able to do her job.

“Not that Gibbs told me.  He just wanted us to know that it’s not a team secret anymore.”

Tony leaned back on the bed and turned on his side to face her.  She looks up at him, noticing his face taking a thoughtful look.   The hand that isn’t being used to hold his head up is playing with the comforter beside her.  Occasionally bushing against her side.

“How long do you think it will take for Abby to let everyone know?”  She asked.

“Are you kidding?”  He asked with a smile.  “They already know.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning, the Director pulled her aside as they all gather for breakfast.

“I have a favor to ask of you,” she started. “Rebecca had several cases still open and I need agents to close them.  I was wondering if you could temporary work with Terry to close the cases.”

“So once I am done, I would rejoin my team?”

“Yes. You and Terry will also be training new agents. One of course is Ziva David who needs to be brought up to speed on our procedures, and another is an agent I’m thinking of pairing up with Terry named Eddie Calhan. He’s a recent graduate from Georgetown that shows an aptitude for computer forensics.”

“I can do that. Although I think if he’s interested in computer forensics that McGee would be the best person to team him up with.  Terry and Becca specialized in drugs and other substances.”

“I was thinking that, but Calhan’s a double major. His first major was chemistry.  Which gives him a background that could be used when we find new compositions. I have decided that Agent McGee will be assigned Ziva as a partner.”

“Really?”

“Well, my advisors suggested that I pair her with Gibbs or Tony, since she already has more experience, but I think McGee is ready to have a partner.” Remembering what Tony had told her, she probably also decided to not assign Ziva to be partners with Tony because of their relationship. Kate found it odd, because she would have thought that it would be the opposite. But she wasn’t going to argue. She’d rather be the one backing Tony up then relying on someone else to do it.

But then Jen Sheppard didn’t seem like your average director.

 

* * *

 

 

The funeral took place in a small cemetery about half an hour from Pittsburgh, up on a hill and surrounded by trees. Tony makes a brief comment about it being from some famous Zombie movie, but his usual joy at mentioning a movie is absent and it was only done because it wouldn’t be him if he didn’t.   And Becca would come back from the dead and smack him because she would have said it had the places been reversed.  Tony had been happy to find a fellow film junkie in Becca.

 She starts crying halfway through the ceremony after seeing Abby cry for about five minutes.  Tony didn’t cry, but the lack of his customary soft grin had about the same effect.  McGee stood next to Abby, letting her hold on to him. Ducky and Palmer stand on Kate’s other side.  Jimmy is crying and Ducky’s not, but you can tell his heartbreak at the loss of another human being in his eyes. Gibbs and the director stand over near Becca’s family. The group gathered is small.  Just family, close friends and coworkers who knew her better than most.  The majority of the NCIS branch had paid their respects at a memorial service that had been put together earlier that weekend. 

She is so involved with her inner slideshow of memories of Rebecca Stanton that when the bugler starts to play Taps, she is startled.   Tony’s holding her hand very tightly, and she’s surprised she didn’t notice.  She watches as a folded flag is handed to Becca’s mother.  The Reverend says a final prayer and the group begins to disperse, to allow the immediate family to be alone when the casket is lowered into the ground.  As each of them passes the casket, they place a single flower on top of the casket. 

Ken hugs her as she leaves the ceremony, thanking her for her help gathering Becca’s things at the office and for her and the team catching the man who killed the love of his life.  She tells her condolences to Becca’s parents and older brother before moving to where the cars are lined up.

She wonders for a brief and miserable second as she enters the car what she would have done if she had stood in Ken’s place.  If it had been Tony in a grave.  Or any of the others.  What if it were Abby or McGee in that casket? 

Honestly, she has had too much time to think on that particular subject in the past month.   She never thought she would be thankful for her mother and her randomness, and failure to adhere to schedules and calling ahead.  But her mother had given her a distraction.  Something that kept her from dwelling on the fact that when she went to work on Wednesday, Becca would not be there.  Or the fact that this brought home the fact that no matter how careful they were, there was always the chance that this would be them.

The others follow her in the car.  They had car pooled in two cars, the other four had been driven up in Gibbs car.   Somehow she ends up in the same car as Gibbs, Abby and Jen.   The first couple minutes of the ride was silent as the individuals inside contemplated the events of the day.  Then Abby decided to break the silence and the mood.

“So when do you think you’ll get married?”

“Married?”  Jen and Gibbs said at the same time.  Jen with a smile and curious tone to her voice, Gibbs with disbelief and a look that Kate wasn’t sure she could define.

“Yep, Tony popped the question yesterday,” Abby explained, twisted in her seat to look in the back without taking her seatbelt off.  “Show them the ring, Kate!”

Kate took the chain off from around her neck where the ring was held.  She had decided on that to keep her mother from noticing it, or anyone outside their team.  However, amongst her friends she could wear it on her finger, especially now that everyone knew.  Jen and Abby kept talking about it, but Kate looked at Gibbs who wasn’t speaking, although he would look back every once and awhile.

He didn’t look happy.

 

* * *

 

When Tony and the others caught up with them at the hotel, Gibbs gave him one look and after a quick look at Kate he followed him into another room.

The rest of them gathered in the small café next door to the hotel.  It was nice bar, but Kate just kept wondering what Gibbs and Tony were up to.  With Gibbs, you never know.  It could be anything from finding out Tony’s intentions, to trying to talk Tony out of marrying her.

After all, Gibbs had three marriages to his credit.  As the others ordered drinks, she really wished she had the distraction.  Instead she stuck to ginger ale and hoped her fiancée lived to see the end of the day.

It was only a few minutes before Gibbs and Tony returned. She looked at Tony, asking a question silently.  He made a motion with his head that told her he’d tell her later what had gone on between the two of them in the other room. 

They all ordered food and more drinks and began their own celebration of Becca’s life. They shared their favorite memories and cried and laughed together.  Sometimes they were silent and sometimes they talked almost on top of each other. 

Abby told of a story of when Becca had pretended to be a fortune teller at a girl’s night with her and Kate.

_The three girls were sitting in a circle in Abby’s living room, the coffee table full of junk food, cocktails and beer sitting between them. A CD player played Abby’s favorite music in the background, although the volume was a lot lower then her usual range at work. Abby had her back to the couch, and Kate was to her left and Becca to the right._

_“I can tell the future,” Becca stated, her voice that of the pleasantly drunk._

_“Really?” Abby asked in her usual hyper-way. Not even copious amounts of the special cocktail she had created herself could dull her enthusiasm._

_“Yep.” Becca placed her drink on the table. “Want to me to try one for you.”_

_“Sure.” Becca closes her eyes and starts to do this humming thing and Kate bursts into giggles. Had she been soberer, she would have been embarrassed, but as it was she didn’t care. Becca simply opened one eye and Kate apologized while trying unsuccessfully to stop. Becca continues to hum for a few seconds, trying not to laugh herself._

_“Abigail. I have your future!” At this both Abby and Kate started to laugh at the false deep tone Becca had taken on and her use of Abby’s formal name. “I see seven children! You live in a mansion in New York after you and your husband, one Jimmy Palmer, earn a lot of money writing real life crime novels. However, you will be secretly having an affair with your computer tech guy, who has a strange resemblance to a certain Federal Agent. One day, Mr. Palmer will come home and find you and challenge Techy to a duel!”_

_At this point both Abby and Kate were practically rolling on the floor._

_“Due to their nature, the duel over Abby is done online, and many gather to watch the two men battle virtually for their love. However, Techy has an advantage of experience and beats the fair-hearted Mr. Palmer._

_Abby and her seven children go off into the sunset with Techy, as Mr. Palmer is being consoled by a mysterious woman of affluent means.” As she finishes, even she is laughing. “Want me to do you, Kate?”_

_“Why not. Go ahead. Let’s see what I’ll be doing in Becca-land. This time, instead of making a humming noise, she just looked at Kate, her face expressing concentration._

_“Got it. This year is going to be a big year for you, Missy. You’ll have a big change this year. Mr. Right will finally get his act together and ask you out. You’ll do a lot of things that will be considered impulsive. You might get another tattoo.”_

_“I doubt that.”_

_“Eventually you will become Madam Director, have five children, one of which will be a big rock star and you’ll be known more for being the mom of so-and-so then being the director of a crime investigation agency. You’ll write your memoir, but everyone will think it is fiction. After you retire, you’ll move out into the suburbs and become a criminology professor at one of the local schools. You’ll have Friday night pool tournaments, which you will always loose on purpose to Gibbs, who can’t play.”_

_Kate was going to respond to that when the girls heard noises outside Abby’s Door. Abby walked to the door and opened it to find McGee and Tony arguing in the hallway. McGee gave an embarrassed smile and Tony gave a less-embarrassed smile. Abby responded with an evil grin of her own before she turned to yell back at the others._

_“Hey Guys, the strippers are here.” Kate smiled and was just drunk enough to play along. McGee’s face made her wish she had a camera, while Tony still grinned._

_“Well, tell them to come in. “_

_“We could use them right about now,” Becca added with a wink. “I want the shy one.” McGee looked like he had stopped breathing and Tony was walking in like he was in his element. Kate supposed he was.  Becca continued to argue over McGee while Tony went in her direction._

_“And what would you like Ma’am?” Tony asked, clearly liking the role of a male stripper._

_“To try you on.” If nothing else, this proved to Kate that she was very drunk.  She would NEVER have said that if she was sober, no matter if it was a game or not._

_“I’m sure I’d be a perfect fit.” Tony was having fun with this. However, before she could reply, McGee cried for help. Becca and Abby were pretending to fight over him, pulling him back and forth despite his insistence that they let him go. “_

“We don’t need to go into that,” McGee stopped the retelling of the story, which thankfully was minus her and Tony’s interaction.  McGee didn’t want their bosses to know that Becca and Abby had gotten his shirt off before they stopped playing around with him.

“C’Mon McGee! I haven’t even gotten to when she read your and Tony’s futures!”

“Yeah, Probie. You need to finish the story.” McGee glared at Tony.

“You only say that because Becca basically said you and Kate were going to get together.”

“You know,” Abby stated, “She was fairly accurate.” Jimmy took a quick look at McGee and gulped. “She said Kate would have a lot of changes and do a few impulsive things, which is true. She also predicted that Tony would lose his car.

“She also said you would have seven children with Jimmy,” Kate added in McGee’s defense.

“Who knows,” Abby said with a smile towards Jimmy, who gulped again as it was accompanied with a glare from McGee. “There is still time.” She winked.

Gibbs thankfully saved them all a patented “Why Not Me” McGee ramble that everyone would recognize as such except Abby and McGee. He started talking about how he had met Becca on the firing range, and how she had shot and hit the targets. The issue was that it was the targets around hers.  However, after a few training sessions with Gibbs and Tony, she had improved so that she was hitting her own target. 

 

* * *

 

There was a group of people dancing. It was one of those standard bar songs that one could barely understand because it was piped through the speakers so loud.    They had all chosen to join the group, even Jimmy and Ducky who hadn’t had dates with them.  Ducky had gotten a partner in a woman who could be around Kate’s age but dressed like someone much younger, and Jimmy had picked a girl who looked like she was experiencing her first outing after becoming a legal drinker.  McGee and Abby were dancing the wrong dance to every song just to have fun.  Currently they were doing the robot.   They were oddly in sync with each other.

Gibbs was slow dancing with the director, and while the distance was polite and to the average person say nothing, the rest of the group noticed the strain.  It wasn’t till a few dances in that Gibbs seemed to give up on pretense and pulled Jen closer.   Or perhaps it was the fact that amongst these people they didn’t have to pretend.  Kate wasn’t sure.  Again, there was nothing that would suggest they were more than causal friends to the untrained observer.  However, it did put a lot of credence to Tony’s theory.

Kate observed from where she stood swaying slightly to the tune, Tony’s arms around her.  Neither of them were much up to actively dancing, choosing instead to stand at the edges and observe the others while enjoying each other’s company.  Of course this reminded her of what got this whole thing started.

They had danced in Paraguay.  At that time, they had both been pleasantly drunk and living up the South American atmosphere.  And they spent more time getting away from the dance floor then they did on it.

She remembered talking to Becca about it before they went.  Abby had been busy on another case so they had gone to lunch together and Becca had teased her.

_“Scuttlebutt is you’re going to Paraguay with Tony.”_

_“Yep.”  Becca had a smile on her face that made Kate wonder what she was up to.  “What?”_

_“You and Tony.  Alone. “_

_“We will be working on a case.”_

_“Not the whole time.  I’m sure there were will be a few hours before you get a ride back to have some fun with your partner. Try him on so to speak.” Kate glared at her, for both what she was saying and for the reminder of Kate’s drunken behavior the week before._

_“I doubt that, and besides we aren’t like that. You are almost as bad as Ducky.”  Kate had told Abby and Becca what had happened._

_“Well, it’s true.  Hell, if my fiancée ever looked at me the way Tony looks at you sometimes, I would never make it to work.  And then there are the looks you give him when you think no one is looking.  Seriously, sometimes you two could burn up a room with that tension. We were about to start a poll as to when one of you would finally snap and have at each other in one of the interrogation rooms”_

_“You are making that up.  We have a strictly work relationship.”  Becca laughed._

_“I’d stay and argue that one all afternoon, but I have a conference with the Seattle branch in MTAC in about thirty minutes and I got to get back to prepare.  But if I can give you one piece of advice, honey, I’d use this trip for all its worth.”  Becca winked at her before putting money down on the table and standing up and leaving her to finish her lunch alone with a lot of images in her mind that she had been very good at keeping at bay till now. But before she had gone out of hearing, she left a parting shot._

Becca had been right, which is why she hadn’t outright denied it when Ducky mentioned it.   But a weekend in Paraguay hadn’t done anything to help the situation.  It made things worse, putting them each into a standstill.   It wasn’t till after the whole wet t-shirt photo fight that they started to fix things.  Which lead them to where they were now, engaged and expecting their first child.

She wondered what Becca would have thought about the baby.  She had briefly thought about using the name Rebecca if it turned out to be a girl.  She decided against it, knowing Becca had never liked the idea of naming people after dead people.  Had actually ranted on it a few times, right after her rant on names spelled uniquely and right before the rant on why one should not name their children odd names like after a fruit or comic book character.

“The Director wants us all to see the company psychologist,” Tony stated, interrupting her thoughts.

“She’s probably right in that. I’m sure we could all use someone to talk to.” She knew having Tony and Abby around helped her, but she was pretty sure that the three that were there, the ones who saw Becca die, would need something more than that. Someone who knew what questions to ask to help them cope with what they saw.

“I suppose.” He paused for a second. “Sometimes when I think about her I can still feel the blood on my face. Do you think that’s going to go away?”

“Eventually,” she said, hoping it was the truth.  

 

* * *

 

End of Book I

This story will be continued in Book II, where Kate & Ziva tackle one of Becca’s open cases. It will take place during the episode _Mind Games_.


End file.
